Maintenance

A longtime pilot and savvy airplane broker at Lunken Airport named Jerry Swart used to say, “Sooner or later, every crook ends up at the airport.” When you think about it, airports do seem to be a magnet for an array of colorfully shady characters — maybe more so in the days before the “benefits” […]

Washing an airplane, particularly a larger one such as a turboprop or jet, is a time-consuming endeavor that can require a lot of elbow grease. CR Spotless aims to reduce some of that labor by ionizing the water sprayed onto the airplane, eliminating the need for wiping the surfaces dry. The system connects quickly to […]

If you want to ensure your engine has the best chances of reaching TBO and beyond, here’s advice that could end up saving you big time: Stop listening to all the supposed “experts” in airport coffee shops and online forums who claim they know it all. There’s a good chance they don’t — and the […]

In a Skycatcher you don’t exactly slip the surly bonds, but we did successfully levitate on the recreational pilot test I gave yesterday. Actually, this curious little Cessna 162 sport machine could grow on you if it weren’t for that really weird control stick. My earnest young applicant was nervous but well prepared, and he […]

“This is 176, we’re coming in over Cape Cod descending, we have a magnetic chip detector light, we’d like to declare an emergency — and we’re heading for home plate.” It was August 1978. One seventy-six was a Grumman US-2B Tracker, a Navy utility plane nicknamed “Stoof” from the type designation of one common model, […]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was a popular book in the ’70s, and though I’ve tried several times, I’ve never been able to penetrate more than a few dozen pages. That said, I’ve always been a proponent of keeping my rolling stock (on the ground and in the air) in good working order. Maybe […]

How to Save Big on a Used Airplane By Stephen Pope If you’re in the market for a used airplane, the good news is there are thousands available for sale on trade-a-plane.com, barnstormers.com and tacked to the bulletin boards at local airports. The bad news is most of them are so old you might wonder […]