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Fuel Economy and You Sorry, but I was one of your “None of the above” respondents (Question of the Week, Mar. 27). Another option could have been to “Fly at reduced power settings.” I now fly more hours but use less fuel.How come? Well, prior to the fuel-price hikes, I would cruise my 1986 Partenavia […]

Pick-up times can come awful early when you are laying over in Manhattan and departing out of Newark. Our 6 a.m. departure for Los Angeles from EWR necessitated a 3:45 a.m. pick-up at the “Mildew Plaza” on 7th Avenue. Our normal pick-up times in Manhattan are an hour and a half before report time, but […]

This article originally appeared in IFR magazine, Oct. 2005. Circling at your home airport isn’t that tough. Familiar landmarks help establish proper lateral spacing from the runway. Because you know the landmarks well, you can pick them out from circling altitudes and in low visibility.Circling to an unfamiliar field in challenging conditions is another story. […]

Click for a Larger Image Sun n Fun is a big show for most aviation concerns but its especially important for the up-and-coming Light Sport Aircraft manufacturers. And theyre not going to let anything like taking a direct hit from a tornado keep them from the show. Sportair USAs hangar in North Little Rock, Ark., […]

AVweb will be at the big spring airshow held annually at Lakeland, Fla., this April 8 – 13, providing full coverage — video, podcasts and text updates, every day. Sun ‘n Fun this year includes all the latest gear, gadgets and aircraft ready for prime time … and may include some early previews of big […]

copyright John Fleck We’ve chosen the winners to fly left seat in the Herpa Wings DC-3 at Sun ‘n Fun! Aircraft owner Dan Gryder has opened up another flight for a left-seat winner, so we were able to pick two of our favorite essayists from more than 200 entries. First and foremost, we say thank […]

This article originally appeared in IFR Refresher, May 2007. The VOR/DME-A approach into Weatherford, Texas, contains a specific missed-approach procedure, as do all instrument approaches. The concept is simple: When you get to the missed-approach point (MAP), the plane should be at the minimum descent altitude (MDA) and — if the airport is not visible […]

Unexpected Aerial Tour of India Well, it was a nice story (AVwebFlash, Mar. 26). But actually it is not true.As a former air traffic controller, I couldn’t believe it. So I contacted KLM. And they told me that the crew was aware of the new airport. But when they arrived the weather conditions were below […]

Most of us taxied an airplane on our very first flying lesson. After a period when we learned part of what our feet do in airplanes (a much longer lesson in tailwheel aircraft), taxiing became second nature, quickly becoming an assumed part of our aeronautical skill set and falling out of the lesson plan and […]

ELA Lingers on the Horizon The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has once again delayed announcing a formal light sport aircraft category, dubbed the European Light Aircraft or ELA. The agency is currently reviewing a notice of proposed amendment for initial airworthiness prepared by the MDM.032 working group. (See details in my column from last […]