On Course

Once again the White House’s annual budget proposal calls for a $100 per-flight user fee on certain general aviation aircraft. While talk of user fees used to send chills through the industry, this time around the reaction has been one of confident resolve rather than fear. Here’s what’s changed. In the last few years the […]

In the FAA’s rush to shut down scores of the nation’s contract control towers, nobody within the agency saw it necessary to perform a thorough analysis of the potential safety ramifications. Nor did the agency conduct a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis to consider, among other things, the millions of dollars it took to build the towers […]

The NTSB this week issued five GA Safety Alerts aimed at preventing the most common fatal general aviation accidents. The big question centers on whether the Board’s action will have any discernable impact in moving the safety needle. My guess is no, it won’t. Here’s the reason: The vast majority of GA pilots won’t take […]

You’ve no doubt heard and read a lot about 3-D printing in the last couple of years. Known as “additive manufacturing” in industrial-design circles, the process is used to produce three-dimensional solid objects of virtually any shape from a digital model fed into a special kind of printer. Several teams have already created 3-D printed […]

As many of you already know, I recently started flying a new Diamond DA40 XLS as one of the inaugural “members” to sign up with DiamondShare, a new concept in aircraft ownership that is seeking to dramatically alter the economic equation for buyers. I first heard about DiamondShare last summer at the Oshkosh Airshow. My […]

If all goes according to plan, the famed Hawker name will all but cease to exist after bankrupt Hawker Beechcraft emerges from near financial death in the coming days under the Beechcraft name alone. Just how long the storied Hawker brand remains dormant is anybody’s guess, but it’s hard to imagine it going away forever […]

The plight of the glider pilot who was arrested for overflying a nuclear powerplant in violation of zero federal or local laws reminds me of another instance in which overzealous police overstepped their bounds after a pilot did exactly what he was supposed to be doing. It happened on New Year’s Eve in 2003. My […]

The photos released last week of a Bell 412 towing a giant banner over the United Arab Emirates as part of a record-setting flight caught my attention. While helicopters do an admirable job of hauling sling loads from their bellies, they aren’t the ideal platforms for all types of towing. I know this, in part, […]

We’ve been hearing talk about a looming “pilot shortage” for so long that we’ve stopped believing it. But I had dinner last night with a group of regional airline pilots, all in their mid-30s and all left-seaters on CRJ 700s, who told me they’re convinced a pilot shortage is coming. They might be right this […]

PC flight simulators are excellent for sharpening our skills, but with one glaring exception: The artificial ATC communications included with the software just isn’t up to the task of providing a realistic flight experience. I didn’t really understand how important this was until I recently had the chance to fly X-Plane 10 using something remarkably […]