briefs

Shortly after takeoff on a warm, pre-dawn departure from La Cross, WI we contacted MSP center. Twenty seconds after the usual, “radar contact,” we heard, “Attention all aircraft, this controller position will no longer be manned.” In our cockpit there was a sudden sober silence. Still stunned, it was several seconds later when a woman’s […]

Belvoir’s aviation division is looking for an editor to oversee one of its publications. The successful candidate will be an experienced pilot, preferably a CFII, with writing and page layout experience. Send a resume with cover letter by fax (941-929-1726) or via e-mail to aviationeditorial@comcast.net.

More than 62 years after it crashed in a swamp, a Spitfire is back on display. The cockpit of the plane, a Battle of Britain participant, was shown off at Hooton Park airfield, in Britain, on the weekend. It took four years to recover and restore the cockpit of the plane, which was originally based […]

…Three months ago. A Swissair Airbus pilot has added a whole new meaning to the phrase “Gotta jet.” Yves Rossy says he spent four minutes swooping over the Bex in western Switzerland (in horizontal flight) attached to a three-meter carbon wing with two miniature jet engines attached. Controls include ailerons, plus a mechanism to move […]

AOPA found itself cast in the unlikely role of airport opponent last week but quickly moved to change the script. It seems opponents of a proposal by the city of Burlington, Conn., to revive the former Johnnycake Airport as a municipal facility were able to mold a July 7 article on the AOPA Web site […]

For Alaska pilot Bob Logan, his Super Cub is quite literally his ticket to freedom, according to the Anchorage Daily News. In what can only be described as an unusual plea arrangement, Logan, a former Fairbanks assemblyman, college professor as well as bootlegger and drug runner has turned the plane over to the State in […]

In a couple of years, you could be happily chatting on your cell phone at 30,000 feet — or ready to throttle the guy in the next seat who natters away on the thing for the whole flight. Technology is coming to the rescue of one of the great telecommunications conundrums of the wireless age […]

They’ve opened a “run way” at Meigs Field — but not for airplanes. An asphalt running path has been installed around a 90-acre artificial meadow that, until about 16 months ago, was a bustling GA airport on Chicago’s waterfront. Now called Northerly Island park, the green space opened to the public without fanfare last week […]

A last-minute compromise allowed the Cleveland National Air Show to go ahead with a slightly amended evening air show last Friday despite a stadium TFR that was in place for a Cleveland Indians game being held next door. Organizers started the show at 5 p.m. and put all the civilian performers in the first half […]

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