Features

I was sitting in one of the big chairs here in the pilot’s lounge at the virtual airport when I read that the president, on June 6, 2002, had signed an executive order dictating that air traffic control is no longer an inherently federal function. That act was a significant procedural step toward imposition of […]

Wally Roberts was born October 22,1936 in Pasadena, Calif., close enough to the Monrovia airport to see airplanesin the pattern. Around age 12, he watched a PT-13 auger in after stalling at thetop of a loop, killing the pilot and his girlfriend. For a while after that hehad a phobia about airplanes, but when that […]

The ILS approach was in heavy rain and came at the end of a long day. One of those days that was a never-ending five-leg load of crappy weather, surly passengers, a lethargic ATC system, and air-conditioning packs that just never seem to catch up. My co-pilot for this four-day “hostage crisis,” Scott, summed it […]

Having flown family and friends and done a substantial amount of on-demand passenger charter flying in singles and light twins, carrying all kinds of people (from babes-in-arms – to old folks who had to be assisted into the airplane – to invalids) over an aviation career that has spanned more than half a century, I […]

Someone, somehow, some way, goofed, and I was recently invited to join that small group of pilots in the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) who regularly fly the world’s only remaining flyable B-29. I think they mistook me for someone else, but I’m not asking any questions! Ground school took place in Midland, Texas, last year, […]

FROM: Col. R. L. Sohn – CAF, Chief Check Pilot – Bombers TO: Tina Stewart – Editor Dispatch, 15 Jan 94 Dear Tina, I just received the Winter issue of the Dispatch, the publicationlooks better each issue. Sometime I should show you some of the CAF stuff I’vesaved going back to 1965 if you don’t […]

Regular readers of AVweb are by now familiar with the efforts of several groups throughout the U.S. to re-create the Wright brothers’ first flight for the centennial celebration in 2003. One of those groups at the forefront of these efforts is the Wright Experience, based in Warrenton, Va. AVweb has periodically reported on the progress […]

Welcome back aviation fans. Your friendly safety rep here, Mr. Sunshine. I’m pleased to report to you that all is well and everything is coming up roses. Everyone on both sides of the mic has heeded my advice and we are all using perfect phraseology. Controllers are sticking to all the procedures and the pilots […]

Sometimes flying is its own reward. Youcatch the last rays of a beautiful sunset as you turn final, you calculate the fuel burnfor your trip down to the tenth of a gallon, or you grease it on at the end of your firstflight with your new in-laws. Every time we fly we usually come away […]

Here in the pilots lounge at the virtual airport a few of us are muttering darkly about May’s flying weather. It comes after a winter for wimps, so mild that the lakes never froze hard enough for skiplane operations. It says right here in the contract that we’re supposed to have a cold winter with […]