Search Results for: vfr

Each year, September brings aviation fans the National Championship Air Races, staged at Reno/Stead Airport in Reno, Nev. This year, the racing was schedule to start next Thursday, September 13. Unfortunately for race fans, national security concerns which, at this writing, have grounded VFR Part 91 flight operations also spelled the end of this year’s […]

Each year, September brings aviation fans the National Championship Air Races, staged at Reno/Stead Airport in Reno, Nev. This year, the racing was schedule to start next Thursday, September 13. Unfortunately for race fans, national security concerns which, at this writing, have grounded VFR Part 91 flight operations also spelled the end of this year’s […]

Most pilots I know believe that the Global Positioning System (GPS) is the greatest thing since the invention of DME. It’s easy to see why. It’s like magic. No more pesky VORs; you can navigate direct to any point on the planet. What’s not to like? If you’re a pilot, not much. If you’re a […]

It suddenly occurred to me that I’ve never done a column on my all-time favorite airplane! How could I have so neglected my old sweetheart? My logbook reveals that I have 1,864.08 hours in this old classic, second only to the 747 time, which we won’t count because it’s a nosedragger, it burns that stinky […]

Introduction — By Phil Kolczynski “Enforcement Survival School” is like finding yourself in Jurassic Park. I’ll let you guess who the dinosaurs are. In Jurassic Park I, a.k.a., “Enforcement Survival School, Part 1,” the lawyer was devoured by “T-REX” right off the “john.” At least, he left the legacy of the “Duct Tape Defense.” In […]

Pretty neat image, huh? I actually got to fly missions in that thing. Yes, it’s a U-2 spyplane; we referred to it as the “Dragonlady.” The saying went, you had to learn to fight with the dragon before you could dance with the lady. It was a joy to fly, but more so than any […]

Editor’s Note: This column should be printed out and posted on airport bulletin boards everywhere now and again next July. After getting back from Oshkosh I unpacked the airplane, put it away and walked into the pilot’s lounge here at the virtual airport to see what had happened while I was gone. One of the […]

When I was an aspiring young aviation cadet in the old Army Air Corps during World War II, we were told that anybody can learn to fly – some just take longer than others. It was probably true then, because that group was carefully selected for aptitude, but I have since learned that it is […]

How frustrating this could be, my mind kept musing. Not three hours earlier the magnificent Three Sisters mountain peaks reached upward through clear skies toward the window seat of a Southwest 737 flying me to Portland International (PDX). No overcast blocked my view until we flew to about 40 miles south of PDX. But the […]

Originations Jiggs Landing Fishing Camp, Braden River, Manatee County, Florida Last summer, I took one of the most fascinating, challenging and rewarding trips of my lifetime: a round-trip flight from Florida to Vermont and back in my 1973 Cessna 172M. “So what?” you ask; people do that all the time. Well, the difference is that […]