Reader Mail

Boeing Looks To The ATC Market … But Can The NAS Be Fixed? Your story this morning shows an aerial photograph of Halifax airport. No mention is made of the photo, and its relevance to the story is not clear.Did you know that this is Halifax International Airport (CYHZ) in Nova Scotia, Canada? It was […]

First Experience Today, I walked in the clouds, flew 50 feet above the ground and discovered much to my delight that I enjoyed both sensations. Manfred Leuthard’s Experimental Gyro N71ML provided the transport, and the pilot himself was an excellent host, a splendid pilot of the Magni two-seater auto-gyro, and a subject matter expert where […]

GA Security In Practice … Pilot Crashes After ATC Denies Access How much longer will the safety of government officals be put over Americans? The system pre-9/11 was there for our safety. You got in trouble, you called ATC and the system became yours to help you get down safely. Now, courtesy of Homeland Security, […]

SBD Checkout I was very interested in the checkout story, and how different mine was in 1943. I had just finished operational training in Avengers and transferred to Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, and was told, “Forget the Avenger, you will fly the SBD.” So with only a cockpit checkout and a tower clearance […]

Question of the Week — Kit Planes vs. Production A previous AVmail listed advantages of factory-built planes over homebuilt planes, including: 5. Best Re-Sale Value 6. Best for Over-All EconomyI disagree at least in part with both of these assertions. It isn’t fair that a builder might spend 3000 hours on a plane and sell […]

Question of the Week — Kit Planes vs. Production Better reasons for factory-built aircraft: You can probably think of more!Doug Nichols I notice I joined a good bunch of voters in selecting “None of the above” for this week’s question regarding ownership of aircraft: kit vs. factory.For me, there should have been a choice of […]

GA Pilots Recruited For Cockpit Study Read your article, and jumped right away to the NASA web page; ’twas looking good ’till I found the following on the Pilot Background Questionnaire: Due to NASA base restrictions, all participants must be a U.S. citizen. If you were born in a foreign country you must bring your […]

Flying for Business The company I work for has prohibited private flying ever since a “Risk Management” department was started over 10 years ago.The company owns two Gulfstreams and two Sikorsky S-76 helicopters, which were flown by professional pilots under contract with an outsourced firm.About two years ago, the company started its own Flight Department […]

Boeing Looks at McAirliners Just a quick note on something I thought was incorrect in the AVweb newsletter. The article says “Seattle-based.” They are now headquartered in Chicago, Ill., as of a couple years ago. Love the newsletter; keep up the great job, I love seeing it in my mail box.Ric Vanselow FAA Wings Program […]

Cirrus Robb’s “Best Of Best” As a Cirrus SR22 owner, I understand and appreciate the Robb Report’s selection of the SR22 as one of the “Best of the Best.” It truly is a great airplane.People know me as an advocate for aviation and aviation safety. Therefore, I am disappointed by AVweb’s allusion to the Cirrus’ […]