Features

In the hangar all day listening to our radio, I heard several pilots ask our tower if they were closing. This was the best exchange: N12345:“Are you guys done for?” Tower:“Who do you mean – me or the tower?” N1234U:“Both.” Tower:“I’m done at noon, but the tower is going to be around for a long […]

The U.S. is an anomaly in most of the aviation world with a government-run air traffic system. Given the effect of the sequester, is it time to consider a privatized system, as suggested by by Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation? Does the U.S. need privatized air traffic services? (click to answer) Last Week’s Question: […]

I don’t remember the exact date, but I overheard this conversation with ATC about 35 years ago. Those were the days when we had the old surplus DGs and transponders were not required near busy terminals. Weather was clear, but a cloud layer had formed over the airport and trapped some students on top. Lost […]

Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft has come out in favor of the notion that Gustav Whitehead first fulfilled the definition of powered, controlled flight a couple of years before the Wright Brothers. Were the Wrights better aviators, or did they just have a better photographer? Did the Wright Brothers really make the first powered, controlled […]

As the government’s budget sequestration gains steam, the FAA is expected to announce which control tower might close as a result, perhaps as early as today. Discussion on this topic has produced plenty of opinions, some valid and some best characterized as fear mongering, in my view. Sequestration cuts will likely result in at least […]

Each week, we run a sampling of the letters received to our editorial inbox here in AVmail. One letter that’s particularly relevant, informative, or otherwise compelling will headline this section as our “Letter of the Week,” and we’ll send the author an official AVweb baseball cap as a “thank you” for interacting with us (and […]

My first flying job was as a flight instructor at Hanger One at Millard Airport (MLE) in Nebraska. One evening in 1989, while working with an instrument student in a Cessna 150, I overheard another instructor, Karl Lindholm, familiarizing his student with tower communications at Epply Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska. With calm winds and no […]

AOPA started on this project about one year ago, announced its intentions publicly at AOPA Summit last October, and is now setting out on an effort to grow the nationwide collection of 650 independent flying clubs into 1,000 networked aviation cooperatives. Like many large successful organizations that attempt to collect people — and money — […]

The full impact of the 5% budget cut is becoming known, and GA-oriented airports are bearing a significant portion of the impact. Will the sequester cut your flying? (click to answer) Last Week’s Question: Results Want to see the current breakdown of responses? Take a moment to answer the question yourself, and then you can […]

Some insist it began production as the world’s largest flying sweet potato and evolved into Snoopy crouching as he waited for his supper. The original Piper PA-23, the Apache, seemed almost round and had such modest powerplants that single-engine operation could be hazardous—just as with other twins with small engines. The last versions, the Piper […]