Aircraft

My trip up and down the middle of the United States in heart of winter got me in touch with the realities of ice and snow.

We get to fly the most controversial airplane in GA history. In the process we learn a lot about the company that was there to pick up the pieces.

My first takeoff out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the EA500 was anything but an anticlimax. We’d just finished up our pre-takeoff check and Jerry Chambers, Eclipse Aerospace’s chief pilot, was giving me some last-minute advice on the takeoff when the tower came with a takeoff clearance, “No delay for landing 737 traffic, three-mile final.” […]

In April 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency released an announcement that it was proposing to gather data to determine if leaded avgas is an environmental health hazard. The announcement in the form of an advanced notice of proposed rule making (ANPRM) has created reactions that range from a willingness to move forward in the search […]

(January 2011) — The envelope had been forwarded twice by the time it got to me. I tore open the top seal and pulled out a worn 8½- by 11-inch color brochure, its binding coming apart, with a cryptic note paper-clipped to its top edge, asking for the brochure to be forwarded on to me. […]

(January 2011) — It was my good friend Paul’s second airplane ride. The airplane was a bright red Grumman AA-1 Yankee, my favorite of all the ones owned by the Orlando Aero Club at the time. Quick and responsive, it was my kind of airplane. On this particular flight, we were flying out of Page […]

(January 2011) — When is it, exactly, that something important to you becomes invaluable? We buy things, use them and ultimately come to notice that they are getting a little tired looking or frayed about the edges. Then comes the recognition that this useful, maybe even favorite, article is getting old. A decision is at […]

“Relative stability in global economies and improving general business confidence” were two of the reasons Textron CEO Scott Donnelly expects 2011 to be a good one for Cessna and Bell. Textron is the parent company for the two iconic aviation brands, and Donnelly’s remarks came in the wake of strong numbers for the fourth quarter […]

Flying high, flying far in a luxury piston single.

(January 2010) — We were settled in at 24,000 feet, cruising along at around 225 knots true, burning 24 gallons of 100LL every hour while watching the nautical miles slip behind us. We’d taken off from Orlando Executive (ORL) in a Cessna Corvalis and were an hour into our flight, cruising at an altitude that […]