Aircraft

The World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration is in full force at Oshkosh’s Wittman Regional Field despite inclement weather preceding the show. Check out flyingmag.com daily (and below updated links) for photo galleries, editor blogs and, if we can catch up with them long enough, videos featuring _Flyin_g’s venerated columnists sharing their must-do’s at Oshkosh. And don’t […]

Tecnam, the Italian company that got its start as Partenavia, has released drawings of a proposed four-seat model, the P2010. The high-wing, strutted aircraft will have metal wings, a carbon-fiber fuselage and a Lycoming 180-hp IO-360-M1a engine. Performance goals include 133-knot cruise, 660-nautical-mile range and 990-pound useful load. Tecnam has sold more than 3,000 aircraft, […]

As many as 4,500 of Hawker Beechcraft Corp.’s (HBC) 6,000 employees could lose their jobs in the next two years, according to a report from the Wichita affiliate of NBC News. The union that represents employees at HBC quoted a letter from company management concerning ongoing meetings with union leaders. The company cited: “… serious […]

It’s easy to get overwhelmed. The sensory overload of EAA AirVenture can take over and cause first-time visitors to scurry around in all directions like a drug-sniffing dog let loose at Woodstock. Even veteran AirVenture-goers can lose focus in the face of so much to see and do. And let’s not get all anxious about […]

This weekend (July 24-26), more than 30 Douglas DC-3s/C-47s are expected for a reunion known as The Last Time. (True fans of the iconic transport have expressed doubts regarding the name of the event.) To be held at Whiteside County Airport, Rock Falls, Illinois, the gathering marks the 75th anniversary of the first flight of […]

Fans of the late Flying columnist Gordon Baxter (author of ‘Bax Seat’) will fondly remember his eloquent descriptions of flying M&M Air Service’s two-hole 450 Stearman. Founded in 1946 in Baxter’s hometown Beaumont, Texas, M&M now operates nine turbine powered ag-spraying Ayres Air Tractors. But back in the day, the company made its bread and […]

July 2010 — The Mooney 201 was a product of an earlier fuel crisis, the one that plagued the United States for most of the 1970s. When adjusted for inflation, avgas cost matched today’s $5 per gallon and up, and many pilots prized fuel efficiency matched with speed above all other airplane characteristics. Mooneys had […]

For pilots planning to fly into EAA AirVenture (July 26-August 1), the 32-page official FAA Notam is must reading, and an integral element of your flight planning. The notam contains all the arrival/departure procedures, radio frequencies, airport details, parking information and more. If you’re an AirVenture veteran with years’ worth of visits in your logbook, […]

The European consortium EADS has introduced a quad-electric-motor version of the 1970s French design, the single-place, aerobatic ‘Cri Cri” (Cricket). Unveiled at the Green Aviation Show in Paris, the new lithium-battery-powered Cri Cri was redesigned in composite for lower weight and is said to fly 30 minutes at 60 knots.

During one of my Sport Pilot lessons with First Landings Aviation’s Chris Esposito, we had just finished up practicing stalls and steep turns off the north shore of Lake Apopka on yet another gorgeous morning. I had been wondering when we would be practicing engine-out scenarios and asked Chris out of curiosity if one of […]