Features

“Nobody runs a balloon meet like Brian Boland,” declares Norman Metivier, a white-haired gent who’s been to many a meet in his day. “There’s no structure to it – it’s a happening.” And so it is: spontaneous, unpredictable, capricious, even a bit bizarre. During one weekend every May, Post Mills, Vt., becomes the center of […]

Click on any image to view a larger version. Brian Boland’s balloon loft and museum Rigging the submarine for its journey aloft One of many odd contraptions flown by balloon This antique submarine flew this year. Houston? Are you SURE this is how it works? Everyone is welcome to help out Time itself collects dust […]

Before getting into this month’s column, I’d like try and address one of the most common question I’m getting from readers of my series on piston engine operation: “John, you talk about fuel-injected engines, but I don’t have one. What can I do in my Cessna 182, with its O-470 carbureted engine?” Managing Carbureted Engines […]

It’s another one of those late evenings here in the pilot’s lounge. I’m here because it’s a place that is conducive to thinking. I returned from a trip a couple of hours ago, put the airplane away and started to leave the airport but turned around and came back here to the lounge where it […]

From the friendly folks at FSSes (Flight Service Stations), who are sort of stepchildren in the ATC system, to the controllers at the ARTCCs (air route traffic control centers), the personnel in ATC (air traffic control) are on the whole, with rare exceptions, men and women are the greatest public servants in the history of […]

Probably the most dangerous thing about general aviation is that one must be around propellers — after all, they are attached to airplanes — and when a human being encounters a rotating propeller, the prop invariably wins. The result is usually disastrous to some part of the human body. I personally know two — not […]

Steven Hinton was born April 1,1952, in China Lake, California. When Steve was seven years old, his parents bought ahouse in Claremont, Calif., next to Ed Maloney. Ed’s son Jim became Steve’s bestfriend in second grade — they grew up together, became pilots together, andwork together in the museum Ed started, Planesof Fame Museum in […]

Dear Boeing Senior Management: I was in Chicago when the news came that you had made the decision to move your offices there from Seattle. Having lived in Chicago, I thought I’d drop you a note because your decision concerns me and I think there are some things you might not know. I’ve been proud […]

Originations Jiggs Landing Fishing Camp, Braden River, Manatee County, Florida Last summer, I took one of the most fascinating, challenging and rewarding trips of my lifetime: a round-trip flight from Florida to Vermont and back in my 1973 Cessna 172M. “So what?” you ask; people do that all the time. Well, the difference is that […]

The combination of the arrival of spring and daylight savings time seems to have a way of luring pilots back to their airports from months of hibernation. Here at the virtual airport, the pilot’s lounge is getting more crowded. From where I sit, I hear plans being made by a group to fly out for […]