On Course

When I called up the pictures of Morristown Municipal Airport (KMMU) drowning in muddy-brown water wrought by Hurricane Irene’s torrential rains late last month, I was a bit taken aback by how widespread the flooding appeared to be. I just didn’t expect that much of my home airport to be underwater. And yet I was […]

“This is the crack cocaine of air travel.” That was the humorous yet apt assessment by my seatmate after we touched down last Friday at Rio’s downtown airport in an Embraer Legacy 600. It was a colorful comparison to airline travel from a fellow journalist who had never before experienced flight on a private jet. […]

You might have missed it, but the French accident investigation branch, the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses, has formally recommended that mandatory “triggered data streaming technology” be installed aboard airliners. The recommendation is contained in the latest BEA accident report investigating the loss of the Air France Flight 447, a document that outlines 10 new safety […]

Anybody who visited Oshkosh this year and spent more than about five minutes at the ICON Aircraft exhibit surely wasn’t surprised to learn that the would-be manufacturer of the A5 amphibian light sport aircraft – an undeniably cool LSA that looks like a winged Jetski and will sell for around $139,000 – took a ton […]

Even if you’re not a particular fan of the bureaucracy that is the Federal Aviation Administration, you have to feel for Randy Babbitt. Since taking over as FAA Administrator a little over two years ago, bringing with him fresh ideas about ways for improving aviation’s safety record and transitioning to the satellite-based NextGen operating environment, […]

Who’s psyched for Oshkosh? I know I am. This will be my first trip back to EAA AirVenture since 2004 after making many such pilgrimages with my dad as a kid. At my last job I was lucky enough to get to cover the Paris Air Show, Farnborough Air Show, Asian Aerospace in Singapore, EBACE […]

We all know the old saying: flying is hours and hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. What rarely gets mentioned are those other times, when we pilots get that uneasy feeling. Many of you will know what I’m talking about. For instance, you’re flying above inhospitable-looking terrain or in solid IMC when […]

Like it or not, Cirrus is now officially a Chinese company. I know that’s a bitter pill to swallow for many who viewed the Duluth, Minnesota-based company as a unique triumph of American entrepreneurial and aeronautical spirit. But let’s face it, Cirrus has been owned, in essence, by Middle Eastern investors for the last decade. […]

I’m wondering: Will Honeywell’s announcement that it’s acquiring airborne satcom system specialist EMS Technologies reignite calls for airlines to transmit live flight-data information rather than relying on what can be obtained from black boxes found at a crash site? Here’s why I ask: Honeywell is the maker of the flight data recorder used aboard doomed […]

Like a lot of pilots who’ve daydreamed about building airplanes or thought about their idea of the perfect general aviation piston single, I used to doodle pictures of aircraft that I hoped I’d design and fly when I got older. If memory serves, most of my efforts looked a lot like Lancair kitplanes: sleek, low […]