Search Results for: vfr

Welcome to the first installment of my monthly column for AVweb. I’ve been associated with AVweb since late 1996, when I moved into the weekly news-writing rotation. Those were the days when our subscriber base numbered around 20,000, we worked hard to have fun with our news products and the principal question we received was […]

Sort of an intermediate hybrid between the venerable 172 and the inestimable 182RG Skylane, the Cutlass rode a fine line for the five years it was in production. Its ill-defined market niche, coupled with the advent of the general aviation recession, kept the production numbers fairly low. Indeed, only 1,191 were rolled out of the […]

You do it before you commence a flight. You do it when you elect en route to continue a flight. You do it when you decide to land. It’s the most challenging to teach, the toughest to learn, and the most important skill for a GA pilot to develop — making the Go/No-Go Decision. The […]

It may not be sleek, sexy or fast, but the relatively new Maule MXT-7-180 does deliver typically good Maule short-field performance for a relatively low price, while leaving the bugaboo of taildragger ground handling behind. The tri-gear Maule is the companys first attempt at direct competition with mainstream four-place, fixed-gear singles. Introduced in 1991, at […]

Nothing sprouts an argument among pilots quicker than a regulation. And the bud bursts into full flower when the argument is over the rules surrounding “known icing conditions.” A look at the history of this controversial phrase reveals a strange mixture of clarity and contradiction and offers a set of cautionary tales to those who […]

One of the unsung benefits of being a general aviation pilot is getting to meet and know a lot of different FBOs. A Fixed Base Operator can be anything from a single-purpose business which sells fuel, or supplies, or provides training, or performs maintenance, or sells aircraft, or it can offer a combination of services […]

Scott Puddy’s final installment in his icing trilogy sure was exciting, wasn’t it? Who doesn’t love a simple tale of Good versus Evil? Through able, one-sided storytelling, outright error and the liberal use of conjecture where the facts fail, Mr. Puddy obligingly spins up the moribund saga of Administrator v. Watkins into a life-like Hollywood […]

Ray Dolby was born January 18,1933, in Portland, Ore. During 1949-52, he worked on various audio andinstrumentation projects at Ampex Corporation, and during 1952-57 he was mainlyresponsible for the development of the electronic aspects of the Ampex videotaperecording system. In 1957 he received a B.S. degree from Stanford University, and upon beingawarded a Marshall Scholarship […]

Many years ago when I was a whole lot younger than now, I was a championship athlete in a very competitive sport. When preparing for a competition, I always used to say, “Let my opponent have the skill, just let me be lucky!” When it comes down to a really tight situation in an airplane, […]

The Confederate Air Force (CAF) does the granddaddy of all warbird airshows every October, in an unlikely place called Midland, Texas. The airport is located between the towns of Odessa and Midland, and while it is a superb location to fly an airshow (flat, no obstructions, no noise complaints except from armadillos), it’s a million […]