Commentary

Pilots are feeling the pinch if this year’s Sun ‘n Fun is any indication.

News editors across the country were champing at the bit when a privately operated McDonnell Douglas MD-87 was reduced to smoldering aluminum and all 21 aboard escaped serious injury. But spoilsport Mary Schiavo, former DOT Inspector General and CNN aviation expert contributor, laid out some facts about survival statistics in airplane accidents, starting with: “It’s […]

None of us want to be labeled. Yes, we all have our professional skills, our favorite activities, personal beliefs, and attitudes about everything from what we eat to where we live. But slap a label on us, and we are confined. A label puts one in a pigeonhole unable to grow and change and, well, […]

Tecnam USA CEO Phil Solomon thinks he sees the beginnings of a problem for general aviation, and we may all be a part of it. Solomon believes he’s watching a transformation take place in aviation. It’s starting at the grass roots level and extending all the way to the FAA. And each level plays off […]

Don’t stop me if you’ve heard this: A guy walks into a pilots’ lounge and asks, “Anyone here got an opinion?” Three hours later he staggers out, weighted down by the torments of the flying world. Similar thing happened on our recent Brainteaser survey. A mother-lode of angst burbled out when we fracked the depths […]

As the government’s budget sequestration gains steam, the FAA is expected to announce which control tower might close as a result, perhaps as early as today. Discussion on this topic has produced plenty of opinions, some valid and some best characterized as fear mongering, in my view. Sequestration cuts will likely result in at least […]

Growing up in New Jersey, I learned that when a stranger sitting on the bar stool beside you asks, “How ya doin?” the last thing the stranger wants to hear is how you’re doin’. Moving quickly past the obvious question — Why did I hang around bars as a kid? Because they had good bowling […]

[AVweb‘s reprint of Dick’s memoir began with the Introduction.] The final act of “My Life in the Blue Suit” began in June 1974 with the Fairchild C- 123K “Provider,” an airplane with a most unusual lineage. In 1943 the Chase Aircraft Company contracted to build assault gliders for the Army Air Forces; their first prototype […]

Let’s begin this review of the single-versus-multi-engine issue by agreeing to disagree that declaring which is better — safer, faster, more efficient, sexier — will never be settled in a civilized manner. Red Sox and Yankees fans will link arms and sing “Kumbaya” before pilots come together on this. Still, some of us can’t pass […]

[AVweb‘s reprint of Dick’s memoir began with the Introduction.] When I returned to the Ohio State University in June 1969 after 18 months of Air Force active duty in Korea, I joined a group of flight instructors that provided classroom instruction for general-aviation pilots preparing to take FAA written examinations. The program was sponsored by […]