Search Results for: wright

Des Moines, Iowa, is busy enough to be interesting but laid back enough to be fun. I was approaching in my Cherokee Six with a King Air holding short:Tower (to me): Baron Eight Romeo Pop, cleared to land.Me: Well, I wish I was a Baron. Cherokee Eight Romeo Pop is cleared to land.King Air: I wish I was a 747. …

As a technician, I think of EFIS in terms of failures. While most pilots don’t need to dig deep into system schematics, a little tech savvy can help you recognize and understand the implications of a failed EFIS. It doesn’t matter if it’s a component failure, wiring problem or software glitch—a proper understanding of the […]

Some aviation advocates who are convinced that a pilot shortage is looming, with implications for costs and safety, have asked a government agency to conduct a study to confirm their concerns. About 16 groups, including FAA, AOPA, Boeing, and regional airline operators, told the Government Accountability Office, The aviation industry is entering an era of unprecedented pilot staffing challenges as a result of a struggling economy, bankruptcies, mergers, increasing flight training costs, manufacturing declines and…

Few metaphors have such tangible meaning as taking a few turns around the pattern and thinking, We see so far because we stand on the shoulders of giants. Its easy to tip my mental hat to the Wrights, Curtis or Whittle. But we each have inspired instructors or mechanics who found the burned valve before it failed. What about the oil-field hands whose labor we burn at high expense to practice flying in circles? Most of…

(function(d, s, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) return; var js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = ‘//cdn4.wibbitz.com/static.js’; d.getElementsByTagName(‘body’)[0].appendChild(js); }(document, ‘script’, ‘wibbitz-static-embed’)); We proudly present Flying Magazine’s Top 100 Warbirds, our list of the best, most influential, fastest, most powerful, most effective and most revered fighting airplanes of all time. As with any top list, there’s […]

It was late January 1962 and my sister Mary and I had been taking flying lessons for about a month, but I don’t think either of us had soloed yet. The Ercoupe — loaned to us by an incredibly generous friend — had sat forlornly in the weeds for some time, so there were issues: […]

From the early days of aviation, hangars have been used to protect airplanes and the people who fly and work on them. The Wright brothers, who have been recognized as the first to fly a powered airplane, used two wooden sheds — one as a workshop and the other as a hangar — to protect […]

I had my Bonanza set up perfectly for the straight-in ILS Runway 22 approach at Malabo, Equatorial Guinea (FGSL), following a short, 63-nm flight across the Bight of Biafra from Douala, Cameroon (FKKD). It was actually a rare clear day near the equator and I could easily see the nearly 10,000 foot Pico de Basile only 10 miles south of Malabo, certainly a potential terrain hazard to be managed if it had been actual instrument conditions and I had been concerned about the missed approach. That would be one of many risks to be managed in this environment.

Timetables, safety cards, even sick bags. Classic aviation and airline memorabilia has a legion of collectors around the world. And while you can pick up a an orange Braniff Summer 1981 timetable on eBay for less than $10, rare pieces at the most coveted end of the spectrum fetch significantly more. Here are five of […]

(function(d, s, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) return; var js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = ‘//cdn4.wibbitz.com/static.js’; d.getElementsByTagName(‘body’)[0].appendChild(js); }(document, ‘script’, ‘wibbitz-static-embed’)); While we can name hundreds of really smart, powerful, utilitarian or awesome airplanes, there are far, far fewer of them that we would call truly “beautiful.” What is it that makes an airplane an […]