Airports

On Saturday, October 10, Kayla Varcoe and husband David Berman held their intimate wedding in the family’s private airplane hangar in Charlevoix, Michigan (KCVX). While many pilot couples have found an aviation theme or location to envelope their nuptials, the current COVID-19 situation that has delayed so many special events led Varcoe and Berman to […]

One hundred years ago today, on September 8, 1920, airmail pilot Randolph Page set off from Long Island to fly the first of 15 legs of the first US Airmail service transcontinental relay flight. Flying by the seat of their pants, with only visual references as their guide, a series of airmail pilots transferred mail […]

In its second year, what organizers have cheekily termed “Osh-Upolu” gathered pilots on the Big Island of Hawaii on August 22 for fun times, awards, and flying camaraderie. The fly-in took place at Upolu Airport (PHUP/UPP) near Hawi, Hawaii, that features a single runway, 7/25 that’s 3,800 feet in length. The first event was held […]

If you live in a sizable American city, you have likely experienced the frustration of presidential temporary flight restrictions. While there are some variations, presidential TFRs generally limit operations within a 30-nautical-mile circle, where the inner 10 miles often prevents all general aviation operations. For a day or two, you can’t take your airplane out […]

With the uncertainty lingering around the best way to navigate flight on the airlines during the current pandemic, the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has embarked on a tour of the US, visiting rural and suburban airports in a bid to demonstrate their utility to local communities. General Aviation Advancing America gatherings bring together aviation, […]

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, stood in the gunsight of an awesome derecho storm that hit the state on Monday, August 10, in the early afternoon hours. A derecho, usually associated with rapidly-moving bow-echo or squall-line thunderstorms, packs immense straight-line winds, often in excess of 100 mph—and it remains far more difficult for meteorologists to predict than […]

Wisconsin’s summer sky has ushered magic to Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh for decades. This year, July’s sky guided stifling blue afternoons, and furious purple thunderstorms; hot, damp nights and brisk, dewy mornings—but not the magic that floats from the sky on taut fabric wings or streaks through the air like lightning, visible briefly before […]

The people on and around the airport in Teterboro, New Jersey (KTEB)—one of the busiest general aviation airports in the nation at 302,000 takeoffs and landings—take aircraft noise very seriously. My introduction to the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey employees who keep an eye on arrivals and departures occurred when a noise […]

It’s a group known for its proactive approach to keeping airports open—so it’s no surprise that the folks at the Recreational Aviation Foundation have kept busy over the past few months. Projects abound across the country that can be supported with small work parties and private action well suited to the current state of general […]

It’s a beautiful late-fall day: warm and clear with a hint of breeze, a cherished last vestige of summer this time of year in the Pacific Northwest. “The Mountain is out,” as the locals say—the mountain in question being Rainier—and its 25 glaciers glittered in the sun as we made our way across the Tacoma […]