Features

The good news for buyers who can’t afford the eye-popping price of a brand-new Cirrus is the healthy supply of used ones for sale. For as little as $100,000, you might score a first-generation G1 SR22. That’s no chump change, and to be sure, an early SR22 might seem stark compared to the current G5 […]

The great book Fate is the Hunter by Ernest K. Gann well describes the grip of fear that most have observed in our fellow pilots and perhaps in ourselves. Fear is of course a primordial, natural, and quite healthy reaction to unknown and threatening situations. Flying perfectly describes such a situation—an obvious venture away from […]

The Weekender’s SocialFlight calendar has a full selection of airshows around the country prior to the annual AirVenture event next week in Wisconsin. On Saturday, Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma is celebrating its 75th year of pilot training with a full schedule of performers featuring the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. The Open House Air […]

The following was heard as my wife and I were flying our Mooney over the northern tip of the Great Salt Lake a few days ago and communicating with Salt Lake Center. Transient aircraft: “Center, do you have time for a question?” SL Center: “Sure, go ahead.” Transient aircraft: “OK, this is the $65 question. […]

Every year it’s the same same questions. “You’re going back?” “Why?” “Haven’t you seen everything?” “Isn’t it just the same airplanes over and over?” I sometimes can’t help but wonder if the questioners believe that I’m living out the definition of insanity when it comes to Oshkosh; doing the same thing over and over, expecting […]

The takeoff might better have been described as a launch. With the new 150-HP Lycoming engine in my 700-pound RV-3, it was off in no more than half the 650-foot runway length and climbing aggressively at my normal 80-mph climb speed. At an altitude of perhaps 150 feet, the engine quit abruptly (whammy #2). The […]

The Weekender is packing for a campout weekend out west, with fly-in options around the country found on SocialFlight. The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire will host its second annual Homebuilt Aircraft Fly-In on Saturday. Arrive in your homebuilt aircraft to the museum at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, and enter judging for a People’s Choice Award […]

Heard on a recent flight ATC: Skymaster 12345 clear to land 12345: I don’t know about a “Master” but my instructor thinks Im a pretty good pilot. Clear to land thanks. Greg Mills

Founder and CEO of Icon Aircraft, Kirk Hawkins, spent his formative years in a way many pilots would envy—motocross racing, skydiving, flying little airplanes and ultralights and mucking around with boats. In the process he picked up a private pilot certificate and acquired an understanding of the wide appeal of motorsports, including recreational flying, across […]

Many of our ranks are professional pilots because they simply love to fly. They find a way to fly no matter what. For them, retiring from a career in aviation simply means they no longer get paid to fly, but they’ll find a new ride. These are usually superb pilots—pilot’s pilots—but they can sometimes struggle […]