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Buying The Old Ones: Homework Mandatory Absolutely agree–old airplanes DO fly differently than produced today. Robert Gilruth from NACA was the author of setting standards of how airplanes should handle–and that didn’t happen until 1937. I’ve flown more than 330 unique types of airplanes (depending on how you count them)–including many antiques–and later airplanes that […]

Staggerwing. Caught you. It only took one word. You started dreaming. It’s okay, we did too. In our mind’s eye we saw that sleek work of art smoke over us at 200 MPH, 450-HP Pratt rumbling as it dwindled away toward the horizon. Unless one’s blood is the consistency of water, at some time every […]

In the early 1970s, I was a captain in the Kansas Army National Guard flying a CH‑54 Sky Crane helicopter IFR north bound off of Forbes Field, Topeka, Kansas. We were headed to annual training with Jeep on a four point load hung under the CH‑54 for ground transportation upon arrival. We were level at […]

No matter how successful we are in life, there’s always someone with a bigger house, a newer car and a better job to help keep us honest. That’s certainly true in aviation, where we’re often left to wonder how some pilots can get away with buying and flying more airplane than they can handle. You […]

Which Came First, The Hangar Or The Airplane? There can be a third dimension regarding whether to acquire the airplane or the hangar first – the vacation home. I can recommend acquiring the airplane first. Then, it’s necessary to purchase a vacation home to justify the airplane. Finally, one builds a hangar near the vacation […]

Most everyone appreciates pilot reports. Two of the most important are turbulence and icing. But both require a degree of judgment with respect to the severity. It’s great to hear from a pilot 50 miles ahead of you that the ride is “smooth.” But what if he says that it’s moderate chop? Is his “moderate” […]

By LeRoy Cook Burt Rutan wasn’t the first to build and fly a pusher-type airplane with the tail in front, but he did solve the inherent weaknesses in the concept, flaws that had bedeviled the similar WW-II era Curtiss XP-55 Ascender fighter plane. Rutan’s strength as a designer has always been to find innovative ways […]

A Tale of Two Airports: There seems to be a rivalry between San Diego International Airport (KSAN) and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (KDTW) on who is the legitimate owner of Top Gun. TOPGN TWO ARRIVAL at KSAN has dogfights (DOGFTs) among TMCATs. But only two call signs of the protagonists. Goose (GUUSE) and Iceman […]

AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause on the NTSB’s website at www.ntsb.gov. Final reports appear about a year after the […]

Cue The Towering CUs You’ve reminded me of the time back in the 70’s we got SO tossed around in an early 50’s V-tail over eastern Kansas that the airplane got upside down … and we weren’t IN the TCU. An old heavy mike came off its perch and boinked the PIC/owner who was spurting […]