Aircraft

Finally, Beechcraft G36 Bonanza pilots can fly with the peace of mind of having ice protection. The FAA has awarded a new Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for the G36 to CAV Aerospace in Salina, Kansas, for its TKS Flight Into Known Icing (FIKI) system. The G36 STC is an amendment to CAV’s STC for the […]

In an interview with British magazine T3, Virgin Galactic chairman Richard Branson again did what we love about him: he waxed optimistic about the future of private commercial space flight. The launch a decade ago of a civilian manned space program in the United States seemed at the time to be a starry-eyed and quixotic […]

(April 2011) WEIGHT MATTERS. EVEN in the light-sport aircraft world. As I wrote in last month’s column about the LSA categories, the maximum gross weight is one of the key factors in determining whether or not an aircraft meets the FAA’s LSA definition. How did the FAA come to that final 1,320-pound figure? Well, it […]

The Sport Pilot certificate turned out to be my perfect re-entry to flying. Here’s how it worked for me. Would it work for you?

(March 2011) — I’M ONE OF THOSE people you might have heard about who’ve made their first certificate a Sport Pilot certificate. I wasn’t new to flying either. I had taken a break from the beginnings of a passion that, as a teenager, I thought would blossom soon enough. The day of my first solo […]

The Blue Angels take this C-130 through its paces with wild air show maneuvers.

(March 2011) — As an icy wind whipped from the Hudson River and buffeted the heliport’s aluminum chain-link fence with an unrelenting ferocity, settling into the cockpit of a Sikorsky S-76 instead of some lesser machine made me stop and appreciate the size and power of one of the best-selling helicopters of all time. “I’m […]

With the S-76D, Sikorsky takes a classic and makes it state of the art.

After the tornado at Sun ‘n Fun destroyed or heavily damaged several Husky aircraft that Aviat brought to the show, another was lost in a crash while being flown back to the Aviat factory in Afton, Wyoming, only days after Sun ‘n Fun ended. The crash was reported on by the Laramie Boomarang online edition. […]

Cessna has joined with King Schools and Redbird Flight Simulations to develop a new pilot training program that couples guided video instruction and demonstrations with hands-on simulator work. Designed to give students a new way of practicing flight maneuvers, the program, called Guided Independent Flight Training (GIFT), kicks off in May and is exclusive to […]