Features

A few years ago, when there was a tethered aerostat by Cross City, Florida, I heard the following radio communication: Pilot 1 to Pilot 2, flying in very loose formation:“Watch for the tethered ballon at 10,000 feet.” Pilot 2:“That’s no problem. I’m well below 10,000 feet.” Jim Finley

Speed matters. Ask any pilot. Frustratingly, speed costs money and lots of speed, as the warbird set says, costs cubic money. In the single-engine piston world, we’d each love to blast across the sky over 230 knots in a Cessna TTX, yet for most, the exchequer doesn’t quite stretch to the nearly three-quarters of a […]

A pilot can learn a great deal by stripping his or her flying down to its fundamental roots. Flying an aircraft without an electrical system puts you in touch with the basics of flying by altimeter, whiskey compass, pilotage and pure stick-and-rudder skills. On the mechanical side, it’s a chance to commune with the engine […]

As spring approaches and the flying season starts warming up for much of the country, getting back to flying will require some review of the basics. Weekender found some pilot seminars on SocialFlight, plus some fun outings as well. On Saturday, the Wiscasset Annual Chili Cookoff will take place at the Wiscasset airport in Maine. […]

A few years back, I was doing multi- education in a 310 at St. Louis international. The student was making a lot of go-arounds, and I was keeping the tower informed. Finally, our clearance was: “N1234, it’s a nice night, and we’re not busy. Cleared to land on any runway you think you might be […]

We’ll admit it up front, without equivocation—we think flight simulators have improved the quality and safety of flight training substantially. We’ve seen the benefits for everyone from just starting out student pilots through grizzled veterans doing recurrent training. That’s why we are interested in the attractively-priced sims developed by one-G simulation, a Seattle-based company. We […]

It’s probably safe to just come right out and say it: Walter Treadwell is not your typical homebuilder. In fact, he’s something of a legend around his local airport. And there is so much to his story. In the April 2008 issue of KITPLANES, the late Bob Fritz got a good leg up on Treadwell’s […]

The Weekender has some aviation history tours in store on SocialFlight‘s calendar. See the historic Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona, and its legacy aircraft at the airport’s annual open house Saturday. Learn about the airport’s origins as a World War II pilot training base at the on-site museum, which will host a Southwest Military Transport […]

About 20 years ago, I was flying on a cloudy Saturday morning southwest of Austin, Texas. I was monitoring Austin approach when I heard a conversation from a plane inbound to Austin asking if they were in radar contact. Approach asked if they were the plane ten miles west of Comfort, Texas on a heading […]

Imagine a Piper J-3 Cub parked beside a mighty double-decker Airbus A380. The two airplanes couldn’t be more different, yet both function on the same four principles: thrust, drag, lift, and weight. The 1.2 million pound Airbus just scales them up a thousand times over the 1,200-pound Piper. Each aircraft is designed for its purpose. […]