Features

What About the Instructor Shortage? We are hearing about the pilot shortage (AVwebFlash, Nov. 25), but what about the instructor shortage? When “old goats” like me get mass mailings from a school with large, contracted, flight-instruction needs with pay rates near $30/hour for primary instruction, there is a problem. And what about the mass postcards […]

Overhead, the massive, wide-chord blades begin rotating. Behind me the whine of the turbine builds as Walt Plentis goes through the start sequence and the 1800 horses of the Lycoming T53 collectively ask if we know what we’re doing, if we really want to wake them up to power a two-place aircraft. Walt assures them […]

Romance in the air is alive and well. While on a CAP flight I heard the following over departure control: Control:Bonanza 123, squawk 4567. A short while later … Control:Bonanza 123, do you have a passenger named [woman’s first name] aboard? Bonanza 123:Affirmative. Control:Can you put her on? We are holding an important message for […]

This Week’s Question |Previous Week’s Answers PREVIOUS RESULTS *** Time magazine recentlyreported that 49% of professional pilots are “very happy” with their jobs.  Last week, we were curious how that figure matches up to theAVweb readership population. While our readership may be slightly less joyful than the pilots Time interviewed, you’re a pretty happy bunch.  […]

UFOs Re: Pilots Want UFOs Investigated (AVwebFlash, Nov. 13)My father, Dr. Urner Liddel, was a nuclear physicist for the Office of Naval Research in the late 1940s and early 1950s, before I was born. At that time, he was part of a team using high-altitude balloons to measure cosmic radiation. Tracking those flights was not […]

Overheard in IFR Magazine‘s “On the Air” With my CFII Jim in the right seat, we were on vectors to Allentown Airport for practice instrument approaches. En route, we heard the approach controller making the following call to another pilot in the area. Approach:Cessna One Three Four, two o’clock, same altitude, have you spotted it? […]

This Week’s Question |Previous Week’s Answers PREVIOUS RESULTS *** Last week, spurred on by a group of pilots of legislators who are asking for a serious inquiry into the nature of UFOs, we put the question to AVweb readers:  Is it time to get serious about these airborne phenomenon, or are we dredging up an […]

Flight Without Delays The Leading Edge article concerning flight delays (Columns, Nov. 12) apparently omits the one- to three-hour early airport arrivals demanded by airlines. The long lines and sit/wait periods are a part of today’s commercial travel whether we like it or not, but not a part of GA travel. What happens to the […]

It was a nice, sunny day at home. A day off with great weather can be a rarity where I live and I intended to enjoy it to the full. My neighbor and fellow pilot, Chad, and I had one appointment to attend to before we headed out to play tennis. Apparently, there is such […]

Overheard in IFR Magazine‘s “On the Air” During a recent departure from Essex County Airport in Caldwell, New Jersey, the tower controller must have been frazzled with intensive student training in the pattern: Tower:Bonanza Seven Zero Mike Romeo, contact New York departure and have a good flight. Bonanza:To departure. Bonanza Zero Mike Romeo. Have a […]