Pilot Proficiency

After missing last year’s show because of the federal government sequestration, the Navy Blue Angels will be back to tear up the skies at the 40th annual Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In & Expo next spring at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport in Lakeland, Florida. “After a year of sequestration and no military participation at airshows, Sun […]

Investigators are trying to determine why a dual-control P-51 Mustang owned by the Lone Star Flight Museum crashed into the water off the coast of Galveston, Texas, last week. The 51-year-old pilot and his 66-year-old passenger, a man from the U.K. who had received the flight as a wedding anniversary gift, both were killed. The […]

“Hey, Dick, your colonoscopy went great.” So says my friend and expert colorectal surgeon. I am just coming out from the sweet embrace of Propofol, the magic elixir that killed Michael Jackson. Suffused with a sense of well-being, I look out over the sparkling waters of Tampa Bay lit by a warm December sun. My […]

At the NBAA gathering in Las Vegas this week, Honda Aircraft has underscored its commitment to its unique “over-the-wing-engine-mount” (OTWEM) HondaJet. A concrete example (literally) of that commitment opened last Thursday at the HondaJet headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina. Honda Aircraft president and CEO Michimasa Fujino, the engineering brain behind the HondaJet, said “With the […]

The Citation Special Olympics Airlift (CSOA) will launch next summer for the seventh time. For 2014, the jets will converge on New Jersey’s Trenton-Mercer County Airport (KTTN), arriving ahead of the games that begin on June 14 and departing the next week after the closing ceremonies on June 21. At this week’s National Business Aviation […]

Honeywell advanced technology guru Bob Witwer gave an interesting talk in Las Vegas this week in which he discussed the future of air travel and posed the intriguing question of whether airliners, cargo planes and business jets years from now will have a need for pilots or, indeed, even cockpit windows. If the thought of […]

Stuart Woods, the best-selling author of the Stone Barrington action adventure novels, is moving up from a Cessna Mustang to the M2. Cessna plans to make the delivery of Woods’ M2 shortly after it earns FAA certification later this year. Woods recently visited Cessna’s Independence, Kansas, manufacturing plant and got the A-lister’s tour, seeing the […]

It’s one thing to accrue the knowledge and skills you need to pass the private pilot checkride, but to advance beyond the basics you should strive to fly more like professional pilots do. And the best pilots for general aviation pilots to emulate are the pros who fly bizjets. Unlike airline pilots who fly predictable […]

The members of the press got a big surprise as Jackie Chan entered the media briefing room during Embraer’s press conference on Monday morning. Embraer announced the Kung-Fu master and philanthropist, who already owns a Legacy 650, will be the first customer in China to own the Legacy 500 fly-by-wire jet, which the Brazilian company […]

Actor Harrison Ford, an enthusiastic pilot and longtime advocate for general aviation, will receive this year’s Al Ueltschi Humanitarian Award at the opening general session of NBAA’s Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Las Vegas. An outspoken champion for general aviation, Ford has testified before Congress and flown humanitarian aid missions in the aircraft he […]