Pilot Proficiency

I purchased 3723V, a 1976 Cessna 150M, to help defray the cost of acquiring my instrument rating and to build time. After earning the rating, business took me to Phoenix, and due to the desert heat and the thermals, it soon became apparent that I needed a turbocharged airplane. So I sold 23V to a […]

This month’s Jay flight simulation scenario from Redbird Flight Simulations features the notorious “Hell Stretch” over the Allegheny Mountains to Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Users will get the chance to take off on an airmail flight in a Curtiss Jenny and navigate through the formidable route just as aviators did before the days of automation, when pilotage […]

There is nothing like an accident to make you think about changing your flying ways. After Martha and I had our accident, we urgently wanted to avoid another one, but we didn’t intuitively know what to do differently. We did know that somehow our attitudes about risk-taking had to change. It was pretty clear that […]

Mooney Aircraft is celebrating its comeback to the industry with an unusual promotion. The Kerrville, Texas-based company has announced an online auction called “First to Fly” to sell the first Mooney Acclaim Type S produced on the recently modernized production line. The auction kicked off on April 4, during the Sun ‘n Fun show in […]

“Think globally, act locally.” That’s the business mantra of the newly formed Continental Motors Group, the world’s first and only truly global producer of piston aircraft engines. What does it mean to you? Well, a few things actually. And they’re all pretty important. First, Continental Motors, founded in 1929, is suddenly a part of a […]

The Solar Impulse team, makers of the airplane set to fly around the world next year on nothing but solar power, has completed the construction phase of the Solar Impulse 2 — the airplane that is set to attempt the flight. The single-seat airplane is powered by four electric motors, has a wingspan of 236 […]

The inverted gull wing, bent downward to keep the gear legs short and the huge prop clear of the ground, made the F4U Corsair instantly recognizable. Other airplanes, however, had used this feature before the Corsair, particularly during the era of fixed gears enveloped in voluminous fairings or “pants.” An early example was the Ha […]

It has been widely recognized that pilots with a sense of community are more likely to continue the path to becoming licensed pilots or to carry on the pursuit of aviation for fun or as a career. Now two of the most recognizable faces within the aviation community, John and Martha King, have launched an […]

At the Sun ‘n Fun International Fly-In last week, the National Association of Flight Instructors inducted the latest flight instructor into the National Flight Instructor Hall of Fame at its annual members’ dinner on Thursday night. This year’s inductee is Kirby Ortega, who was previously honored as the NAFI Flight Instructor of the Year in […]

Flying with a friend from Oshkosh back to New Jersey, I called up clearance delivery at our first fuel stop, a leg from Muskegon County Airport on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan to Burke Lakefront Airport on the southern shore of Lake Erie — and was pleased to hear those magic words: “Cleared as […]