Features

*** PREVIOUS RESULTS *** Last week, AVweb and TSA polled aircraft owners/operators about the safety of their personal planes. Half of those who responded (220 AVweb readers) were very confident about GA safety, telling us their planes were kept locked in secure hangar when not in use. 34% of respondents had some concerns about the […]

Presidential TFRs Enough is enough. For the fourth time in the last five months, I have been personally affected by the Presidential TFRs. When are the NSA and Homeland Security going to realize that my Cessna 177 offers very little risk to the president? I have flown to New Smyrna Beach, Fla., for the Daytona […]

Few times in my life have I ever been as nervous and anxious as I was last week. Starting college, my first solo, my first airshow performance, and my first trip without my parents at the age of 13 — these events never presented as much excitement as I experienced last week.For the past five […]

I was sitting in the pilot’s lounge at the virtual airport, quietly minding my own business and practicing new hand gestures in case I had to go to Brazil, when Mark — one of the local pilots –caromed off the door frame and boomed into the lounge trailed by scraps of yellow paper emitted from […]

“While flying the Santa Monica VOR-A approach tonight, I heard SoCal approach say…” Approach: November XXXX say again type. NXXXX: We’re a Beech 19. You know, the little one. Approach: Roger. So what you’re saying is you’re a little son of a Beech.

*** PREVIOUS RESULTS *** Last week, AVweb asked you if the much-tauted ”bonus depreciation” provision in last year’s tax bill was responsible for the upswing in General Aviation. We discovered that AVweb readers are well-grounded and not quick to make snap judgements – just over 50% of you said that while it is an upswing, […]

Over the past three and a half decades, I’ve had the opportunity (and frequently the privilege) of working with a great many aircraft mechanics. At first it was as a nave customer having them perform inspections and repairs on my airplane. Later it was as a student and apprentice swinging wrenches under their supervision as […]

DC-9 Hard Landing The aircraft in the video was Ship 909 (NewsWire, Feb. 9). I worked at Douglas Aircraft back then and remember watching this video right after the event. Ship 909 was repaired but never sold to a customer. 909 ended up being used for a number of flight test purposes, one of which […]

I was in a tent and it was raining, but at least it was warm. Standing behind a plywood podium in a “forum tent” at a recent Florida Fly-In, I had been invited to give a little talk to the experimental airplane crowd on what airline flying was really like.I was more than a little […]

Overheard at Bankstown Airport in suburban Sydney… Tower: ABC, cleared for takeoff. Caution for a rabbit at the far end of the runway. ABC: Roger rabbit…