Features

The results were pretty conclusive this week and we got more than twice the average number of responses. More than half of almost 5,000 AVweb readers think DEI is hurting aviation.

My old Bonanza was a very capable airplane for instrument flying, but my panel avionics did not include an FAA-blessed GPS navigator. My Garmin portable was a highly capable situational-awareness tool, but for IFR flight planning, I always stuck to VOR-to-VOR airway routing, even if the turns from one fix to the next involved nothing […]

In the 1980s, when I worked at Daniel Webster College in Nashua, New Hampshire, it had an innovative flight training program with a diverse fleet that included Grob G109B motorgliders, Mudry CAP 10 aerobatic trainers, and swift and slippery Mooney 201 complex singles. Based at Nashua Airport, DWC’s high-density flight operations blended in with a […]

My friend and I were flying his SR22 into Denver’s Centennial Airport. I was handling the radio. We were VFR at 13,500 feet when Center handed us off to Denver Approach. I checked in, then followed up with a request: Me: In case we need it, can I expect a Bravo clearance? Approach: No. A […]

Last week we asked whether airlines should get airspace priority and a thin majority of AVweb readers disagreed with that premise.

I owned my little two-seat Grumman AA1-B for 22 years and loved it. But after getting my instrument rating, I realized it just wasn’t practical for IFR travel. So I eventually sold the Grumman to a friend (who formed a partnership with another pilot) and upgraded to a 1954 V-tail Bonanza, which I also loved. […]

To no one’s surprise, the majority of our poll respondents want a new funding method for the FAA that might take some of the politics out of its budget allotments.

Stop me if you’re heard this one. Many years ago, a foreign student with a heavy accent contacts air traffic control over the east coast of Florida saying he’s lost. The controller gives him a transponder code and tries to get a general idea of where he is in relation to coastal landmarks. After a […]

We asked if readers felt safe in the air and despite all the gloomy headlines about incursions, mental health and flight delays, we overwhelmingly are quite comfortable in our element.

On a recent trip from the West Coast to the Midwest, I’d just checked in with Center after a couple of sectors in NorCal. A few minutes later, the controller gave us a climb to our final altitude, FL230. Then, after another few minutes: Center: “Uh, 40N, did I give you FL230? I know I […]