Commentary

If you’re an actor, like Tom Cruise or Harrison Ford, or a well-known TV reporter, it’s usually not too hard to get a ride in a jet fighter, just ask. But for the common man, they are extremely hard to come by – even for a member of the Air Force team. I earned my […]

(click photos for larger versions) There I was in the left seat, 1,500 feet, sweating buckets, searching the jungle below for anything unusual that should be reported. Well, OK, it wasn’t a jungle, just the piney woods of western Georgia, and I didn’t really need to report anything, I just needed to keep the airplane […]

I‘ve laid my soul bare on a couple of occasions in my life but this is getting ridiculous. There, spread before all on a cheap folding table at LaGuardia Airport, were the contents of my shaving kit, sans the nail clipper, which I’d presciently left at home. “What’s this?” asked the white-shirted, freshly bepatched TSA […]

Recently, a proposal was sent to the U.S. Department of Transportation outlining an idea to allow flight instructors to conduct air-taxi flights without taking Part 135 checkrides. The author’s intent was to help make flight instruction a career choice in itself rather than a stepping stone. AVweb presents the original proposal and two point-counterpoint views […]

While we’ll concede the presidential TFR over Kennebunkport, Maine, last weekend was breathtakingly excessive — any chance we could fly over some of the state? — the consolation is that, with the cancellation of the Statue of Liberty TFR, the New York Hudson corridor is back to normal. AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli flew it last week, […]

Cessna is toast; Piper is roadkill; and Mooney? Fuggedabout it. The way A. Sandy Munro sees it, the established U.S. GA industry has a couple of years — a half-decade at best — to reform or face being gutted by the same people who dominate the auto industry, steel-making and machine tools: the Japanese. According […]

The weather forecast all week has been consistent if nothing else – wrong 100 percent of the time. A thick layer of fog smothers Oakland like a ridiculous amount of Styrofoam pellets protecting a small package. Forces greater than the defense of wishful thinking demanded cancellation of our trip last weekend. As lunchtime approaches, the […]

The longest flight of my aviation career begins much the same way as the day I got married: Although the event was certain, how to accomplish it wasn’t. A squall line of business and personal responsibility creates a downpour of deadlines. The summer monsoon season pinpoints a three-day time frame. My youngest daughter Savannah has […]

On Saturday, July 13, 2002, a crowd of more than 1,500 people witnessed the rollout of the first Eclipse 500 in Albuquerque. By the time you read this, the revolutionary six-place, twin-engine mini-jet may well have made its first flight. With its high-tech avionics, 355-knot cruising speed, 1,300-nm range, and 41,000-ft ceiling – all for […]

Some people say that you could put two pilots in Yankee Stadium and, before the game was over, they would be off in a corner somewhere talking about airplanes. Several years ago I moved to Clear Lake, Iowa. Shortly after arriving, our mutual interest in aviation led me quickly to my new neighbor, Bob “Doc” […]