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I guess I’m mean, but this is one of my favorite ways to trigger “go-around mode” in training and on checkrides. Not for me the old saw of “fire truck on the runway” or the like … much too mundane. I usually wait until the power is all the way off, flare is complete, and […]

It’s Thursday, May 18, 2000. My wife Donna and I get up with the alarm at 5:30 a.m. Today we are going to fly from Clarksburg, W.V., home base of our airplane, to St. Louis. The AFSS briefer relates how there is a strong low over Kansas City with a frontal system extending from there […]

The other day I had a very pleasant time flying with Eric as he scoured off some of the rust and demonstrated that he had a pretty good handle on this instrument flying stuff. As forecast, the weather was deteriorating, so much of the time we were in the clouds. After we landed, we sat […]

TYPE OF HONOR OR AWARD PRESENTED BY, DATE Raymond Gray Scholarship Union Pacific Railroad, 1939 Naval Aviator United States Navy, 1942 Tau Beta Pi University of Washington, 1948 Sigma Xi University of Washington, 1949 Lawrence Sperry Award, “for important contributions in aeronautical flight research at transonic and supersonic speeds up to Mach 2” Institute of […]

A. Scott Crossfield was bornOctober 2, 1921, in Berkeley, Calif. He took his first flight at age six in anoil company airplane, a flight that hooked him on aviation for life. DuringWorld War II he was a fighter pilot and fighter gunnery instructor in the U.S.Navy. In 1950, he joined NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory […]

Small children have vivid imaginations. They create imaginary playmates and re-enact stories, movies, etc. Unfortunately, as we grow older we tend to lose the ability to apply imagination to our activities. In training instrument students I explain the three skills required of an instrument pilot – instrument cross-check (scanning), instrument interpretation (what are these gages […]

If the Justice Department does not step in and halt the process, the U.S. domestic airline industry may soon be dominated by three mega-carriers. United may purchase US Airways, American may join forces with TWA and/or Northwest and Delta may absorb Continental or America West — at least that’s the way things stood earlier this […]

It takes a crowbar to separate image from reality with the big Commander twins-the image pitched by Rockwell Intl. in a blaze of promotional glory-and the one left by Bob Hoover in his airshow demo, hanging a Shrike on a prop and deadsticking it out of a loop. When the image is pried away, what […]

The Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six/Saratoga comes close to being the epitome of a utility airplane. In the payload/capacity/cost equation, its hard to find another airplane that can carry so much for so little. As such, its popular with charter and cargo operations, and fills the need well. With six seats and fixed gear, its only […]

Saddled with a battered image, handicapped by a powerplant with a nasty reputation, the Turbo Arrow should be approached with caution. But various upgrades and a kind of Darwin effect may have weeded out many of the real clunkers by now. When Piper hung a 200-HP turbocharged Continental onto the basic Arrow airframe in 1977, […]