Search Results for: wright

Check out the 25 coolest aircraft according to Flying magazine’s editors.

This passage from “As We Know It,” the July 2014 Editor’s Log, caught my attention: “What we’ve seen, instead, is the proliferation of smaller, lighter airplanes, often with range and capabilities that seem limiting when compared to what was the norm 30 years ago. This market is populated by storebought LSAs and experimental aircraft. They’re great for a $100 hamburger run, and possibly even an overnight getaway to the mountains or a beach, but the destinations need to be close, the load light and the weather good.”

Many of us fly, or have flown, some rather capable high-performance single-engine airplanes providing excellent long-distance transportation value and utility. Flying a Cirrus, Centurion, Bonanza or Mooney and cruising between 150-180 knots allows you to operate over the entire country on a practical basis. You can, however, achieve almost as much utility from simple fixed-gear airplanes, providing you know and account for their limitations, your “utility envelope” and certain associated risks.

When it comes to preflighting an airplane, there is nothing more true. Sure, you can follow the diagram laid out in the pilot’s operating handbook, or routinely drone through a do-list of items a mile long that are spelled out in the aircraft’s preflight check list, but if you don’t understand what problems you are looking for, what’s the point?

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…

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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: […]