Features

Is It Better To Be Lucky Or Good? Yes I learned to fly out of Elmendorf AFB in the early 70s, and many of our “sorties” in the 150s were to Fort Richardson’s then towered single airstrip. In fact, that’s where I solo’d. I remember early on my instructor warning me to beware of two […]

While generally round and black in color, that’s almost all the characteristics aircraft tires have in common with their automotive siblings. In fact, a major difference is the construction and materials used in their manufacture. Aircraft tires and tubes primarily incorporate natural rubber while automotive tires use synthetic compounds extensively. Aircraft tires are designed for […]

I do flights in my Cessna Cardinal for PALS, Patient Airlift Services, such as flying people with cancer to their medical appointments in another city. On one recent flight, I decided to let my passenger/patient put a headset on so she could hear me talking to the controllers. Well, we were taking off from Hudson […]

For some, Piper’s PA-46-series is the ultimate step-up piston single. It’s a serious IFR traveler, and the Malibu and Mirage can do 200 knots in pressurized comfort. With many to choose from at varying price points, these airplanes are far from inexpensive to own and operate, plus they can be unforgiving in the hands of pilots […]

Every so often we catch a glimpse of something. You do a double-take and your heart flutters before your brain can make sense of it. You feel your cheeks lift as you realize what it is. Oh, that. Cool. I know what that is. I’m a part of that club. It could be a Grateful […]

The circle-to-land maneuver at the conclusion of an instrument approach has earned a reputation over the years as one of the riskier things we can do in an airplane, to the extent many major carriers don’t allow their pilots to perform it—they want stabilized, “straight-in” or nothing. The good news is that’s not necessarily a […]

Best Of The Web: The Death Of An Airplane You can tie down an airplane as securely as you want, but Ma Nature has ways of defeating your best efforts. One day a long time ago a local Super Cub, well tied down and facing south (90° to the prevailing winter westerlies), ended up across […]

It’s bound to happen. Your airplane hits the shop for an annual inspection and all seems to be going well until that dreaded call from the mechanic, who says the propeller (or propellers, if it’s a twin) needs to get shipped to a propeller shop for overhaul.  But what exactly happens to that propeller once […]

I’m from Massachusetts (the North) and in the mid-1960s, flying cross‑country from Daytona Beach to an airport near Tampa Florida (the South), I passed by the Orlando airport and tuned the frequency for a brand‑new reporting system named ATIS. I caught the recorded transmission about halfway and heard the following: “Temperature 28. Dew point 10. […]

In this podcast, AVweb senior editor Mark Phelps talks with Chuck Surack, founder of musical instrument and equipment retailer Sweetwater Sound and new owner of Enstrom Helicopter. Surack’s business style includes a healthy helping of customer satisfaction, to the point where he includes a small bag of (Sweet?) candy with each online order, no matter […]