Reader Mail

Dangerous Osprey? The V-22 Osprey is the only aircraft that I would refuse to fly on. If a helicopter is a group of parts trying to shake itself apart, these things are worse. How many of these things has to crash before someone up high decides the design is just too complicated for routine military […]

Space Bureaucracy Prompted by this AVweb article I looked a little up about this issueWant to launch a commercial space vehicle and you have to deal with: EPA on the groundFAA in the atmosphereNOAA – Office of Space CommerceFCC – Allocated radio frequenciesMaybe NASA but I am not sure about thatand once you get up […]

In Praise of Paul Thanks for everything! How’s about occasional titillation just to remind us all of what we’re missing. Good luck in whatever comes next. Larry Stencel Writing well is hard. When it appears to have been easily grasped by the reader, it proves the point. Paul proved this continually – on subjects ranging […]

Beware Of Low-Pressure Open Door Policies Great yarn Paul, brilliantly penned. Thank you. It reminds me of an old mate, now long departed. 40 years ago, I was a young shearer working in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. One old bloke whose sheep we shore had a Jodel D11 he’d built. It was […]

The Two-Pilot Problem My experience validates the saying that “The only thing more dangerous than a single pilot, is two pilots flying together who haven’t been trained to do so.” I’ve got 8,000 single pilot, GA hours. I don’t know how to fly with a second pilot. On the rare occasions I have one aboard […]

Accident Probe: Exceeding Capabilities […]I flew the Classic Whale for 16 years plus 16 years in the C-141. They both are hot wings, of course, and icing wasn’t a real problem because we passed through those icing levels quickly. My flight experience in the T-29 and C-118 (CV 240 and DC-6) was a different case. […]

FAA Concerned Lightning Could Cause 777 Explosions It is quite a challenge to try and put this sort of problem in proper perspective for the “Monday Morning cockpit crowd” without sounding callous. Actually, airline maintenance personnel perform dozens of tasks on a repetitive basis, similar to tasks associated with this fastener, to “inspect and correct” […]

Yeah, Fear Of Crashes Keeps More People Out Of Aviation Than We Admit It is an interesting conundrum that people get all upset when one of those “dangerous” little airplanes crashes, but simply shrug when there were two or three fatal car accidents on the same day. Safety is a perceptual thing. Flying has always […]

Second Chance Six Great story! My son and I recently bought an RV6A and have found the local airport folks to be VERY helpful as we learn to maintain the plane. Don’t know what we would do without them and the sense of community greatly enhances our ownership experience! dbier I see this as one […]

The Biggest Aerospace Story Ever (Yawn) Incredible visual phenomena, classified military operations, or alien beings? I have to go with the first two. In addition to having over 25,000 hrs flight time, I probably have an equal amount of time working outdoors in remote regions around the planet, much of it at night. Many of […]