Features

Airport Derelicts Offer High Hopes In Low Times It’s amazing how quickly time passes. When I started flying in the mid-seventies, my steed was a well-worn 1938 J-3, long victimized by a past history of windstorms and neglect and scarred by numerous spar splices and welded repairs. But we were a team, exploring every small […]

Talk about the current market of new million-dollar piston singles and inevitably someone will argue that you could buy a twin turboprop for less. The Cessna 425 Conquest I is one of them. The current Aircraft Bluebook pegs a 1981 425 at $620,000 (down $200,000 from ten years ago), and for those looking to move […]

By Russ Erb This story originally appeared in KITPLANES. After telling the following story to many other pilots, I came to a conclusion that my flight instructor never told me. For that matter, I’ve never read or heard about it in KITPLANES, EAA, AOPA, AVweb or anywhere else in the aviation press. I know a […]

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking at weather in preparation for a local flight. As I reviewed all the data from the local area including pilot reports, I saw the following PIREP from a Cessna 172 who had been flying in the area: FL025/TP C172/TB CONT MOD CHOP/RM ITS LIKE BEING A BEACHBALL […]

AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause on the NTSB’s website at www.ntsb.gov. Final reports appear about a year after the […]

I, Taildragger Bigot As you say, being a taildragger or glider pilot doesn’t by definition make you a better pilot overall. But I do believe getting some glider (which I have) and taildragger (which I haven’t – there really aren’t many of them to train in in my local area) training will help. It’s not […]

Before glass panels, specifically Primary Flight Displays (PFD) and Multi-Functional Displays (MFD), partial panel in round-gauge, six-pack panels meant losing the attitude (AI) and heading (HI) indicators as a result of losing the only vacuum pump. We dreaded when the CFII or examiner pulled out those pesky round rubber instrument covers with suction cups and […]

I could tell something was different when I walked up to the airplane. Aside from it being bright red instead of the standard Sonex yellow, the new Waiex B-Model (also available as a straight-tailed Sonex) just looked larger. Not a lot larger—just where it counts—in cabin room, seating position, and up front, where you hang […]

Overheard on Austin Approach: AA123: “What’s going on down there? That’s the second time we’ve been vectored through the localizer!” This was followed by a long pause. AUS Approach: “Previous controller no longer a factor.” Paul Millner Berkeley, CA

Some mentor, long ago, explained aviation weather to me: “There are two kinds of weather you never want to fly in no matter the aircraft,” he said. “Icing and thunderstorms.” He wasn’t wrong. But until we gain some experience, sometimes it’s hard to tell when we’ve gotten too close to either weather situation. Put another […]