Features

I hadn’t heard from my friend Mil Harmon for a while. When I got his letter the otherday I understood why. For the first time in 27 years he is without “Ten Romeo,”a beautiful 1969 Beech Bonanza 36 (full registration N7710R) considered by some to be themost renowned single-engine aircraft in the world. This plane […]

Howard Pardue’s Bearcat Richardson’s YAK before the accident… …and after. (Hint: something’s missing!) Howard Pardue’s Sea Fury taxiing in after the accident. Interesting tail art on the YAK! The 34th Annual Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada opened on September 8, 1997 witha record number of entries in the unlimited racing class. All in all, […]

NOTE: Following Capt. Baiada’s editorial, we’ve published a reply by an air traffic controller. As I read Ms. Garvey’scomments in a letter she wrote to USA Today (“FAA out Front on Safety,”in the August 20, 1997 issue), what struck me most was not FAA’s after-the-fact actions,but her assurance that things are getting better and that […]

Jessica Dubroff died 21 months ago as a very youngpassenger in the left seat of a Cessna airplane. The pilot, in the right seat, took off ina driving rainstorm, in the thin air of an unfamiliar high-altitude airport, with thefuel-air mixture improperly set and the plane carrying almost a hundred pounds over itscertified weight limit. […]

Avoiding Aviation Gridlock: A Consensus for Change National Civil AviationReview Commission Preliminary Funding TaskForce Report Norman Y. Mineta, ChairSeptember 10, 1997 NOTE: A PDF version of this report is also available. Table of Contents I. COMMISSION FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS A.Commission Findings B.Commission Recommends an Integrated and Comprehensive Package II. INTRODUCTION: WASHINGTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM […]

Avoiding Aviation Gridlock: A Consensus for Change National Civil Aviation Review CommissionPreliminary Funding Task Force Report Norman Y. Mineta, ChairSeptember 10, 1997 ATTACHMENTS DRAFT LEGISLATION AND SECTION BY SECTION SUMMARY SEC. 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. (a) SHORT TITLE.— This Act may be cited as the `Aviation System Improvement Act’. (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.— […]

The midair collision on thelakefront on July 19, 1997 was a tragedy. Seven people died and the sorrow that incidenthas caused can not be measured. I had a personal loss just last month that I will nevercompletely recover from so I am not making light of it. What angers me is the exploitationby the media […]

I‘d purchased a 1995 American Champion Super Decathalon, and beforeshipping it home to Japan it seemed almost sacrilegious not to fly it toOshkosh. So I departed Chino, California (CNO) on July 26th at 1300 local,with my camping gear in the back and full tanks. After skirting the Las VegasClass B and deviating around the north […]

“Oh happy, happy, joy, joy!” we thought to ourselves as wesaw signatures of famous people in the FAA, N.J. Division of Aeronautics,and the City of Atlantic City on a “memorandum of understanding” about BaderAirport. The long nightmare was ending. The airport would survive for anotherdecade. In return for being allowed to proceed with constructing a […]

The key facts of theMike Taylor matter reveal that an injustice has occurred, regardless of the legal technicalities. A student pilot fails to refuel his private airplane on a cross-country solo flight and crashes. The student pilot was warned by his instructor to refuel before embarking on his return leg. The instructor’s CFI and other […]