Features

Face it, buying an airplane involves more of the former Federal Reserves Chair, Alan Greenspans irrational exuberance than it does steely-eyed appraisal-its easy to fall in lust with a paint job. Thats especially true after having had an enjoyable time learning to fly while making new friends in aviation-it can be hard to believe that […]

The Fly In for food season has already begun. As we kick off our Friday Weekender spot, we’re highlighting breakfast fly ins in Florida and Texas, a coffee and doughnuts gathering in Arizona and airport open houses in Florida, Oklahoma and California-all taking place this Saturday or Sunday. Thank you to Social Flight for collecting […]

Aviation lore is full of heroes like Chuck Yeager, who saved the day while calmly muttering on the radio something about some little fire going in them engines or such. The quiet, unflappable, laid-back flyer has been the role model for young pilots since the days of the Lone Eagle. But, is there such a […]

With all the literal and figurative bells and whistles in todays cockpits, something as mundane as losing communications with ATC is rare. One reason is the stuff we have in the panel these days is a couple of light years ahead of even two decades ago in reliability. But loss of communications-going no radio, or […]

Letter of the Week:Affordable Avionics Garmin’s comments are just silly. They don’t want to use open standards because then they would have to admit there are things that might be better than what they have. A bunch of years ago, some large computer manufacturer said, “Don’t get locked into open systems,” and that large computer […]

While on a trip Christmas Eve in Atlanta Approach air space: Me:“Atlanta Approach, radio check.” ATL:“Loud and clear.” Me:“Got quiet out there. Just checking.” ATL:“I like it that way.” Jim Fortunevia e-mail

A few days ago, we emerged from a polar vortex that drifted south – a textbook example of what those things do from time to time. The associated cold managed to get the media into full cry and revived all of the how cold is it? jokes. Judging from Internet aviation forums, it also got […]

One day when I was working the south arrival sector at Denver TRACON, traffic was getting backed up, and I had to start issuing speed reductions to the arrivals on initial contact. One United pilot took exception to being slowed so far from the airport and asked:“Approach, just how far out do you show us, […]

What will it take to stimulate a flat avionics retrofit market? There are buyers, bythe way. Its just that fewer of them are willing to slap $40,000 on the counter at the avionics shop like they did 10 years ago. Today, $20,000 is the new sweet spot for a modest up- grade. For many, thats […]

This afternoon, my six-year-old son and I went out to the airport to check on things at the hangar. The weather was rainy and IMC. We watched a Cherokee land after shooting an instrument approach. I made some comment about being able to fly instruments soon, when I finish my instrument rating. My son turned […]