features_old

This article originally appeared in Aviation Consumer, Aug. 2005. For most aircraft owners, dealings with insurance companies will be limited to shopping rates and paying premiums. Not many will file claims for a damaged airplane. But if the worst does happen, does the insurance company hold the upper hand?Generally, yes. Insurers employ claims adjusters and […]

Cessna 162 My congratulations to Cessna on their amazing sales of the new 162 light-sport aircraft (LSA) (AVwebFlash, Jul. 22). Only Cessna with their long established reputation with American flight schools could generate any sales at all with this new and, in my opinion, highly questionable design.I was waiting for some manufacturer to sell enough […]

This article originally appeared in Aviation Safety, June 2005. The romance of flying to an out-of-the-way location, one only accessible with a personal airplane, is a powerful attraction to many pilots and their passengers. Unfortunately, the landing areas at many remote destinations — resorts, fishing camps, islands and lakes come to mind — are not […]

I was awakened by a phone call from a good friend. His opening words were, “Man, am I glad to hear your voice!”My instant response to that is usually, “Oh %$#@! Who bought the farm this time?”He said, “There was a fatal Mustang accident at Camarillo this morning and I’m happy to hear you weren’t […]

More than 30 years ago, in 1974, the U.S. Department of Defense commissioned United Airlines to prepare a report on the techniques used by the airline industry to develop cost-efficient maintenance programs for civil airliners. The resulting report, titled Reliability-Centered Maintenance (F. S. Nowlan & H. Heap, National Technical Information Service, 1978) described a radically […]

This year, we shot quite a bit of original video at Oshkosh. While we didn’t have time to publish everything we captured, we did put together a dozen or so videos to give you the flavor of the show and highlight a couple of interesting products we found in the exhibitor hangars. Here’s a complete […]

Dwindling Pilot Population EAA President Tom Poberezny is to be admired for his lobbying for the LSA regulations and support by the aircraft industry (AVwebFlash, Jul 22). However, one need not look any further than your fuel price report of $4.51 per gallon for a reason for a declining pilot population.There is a point where […]

Ladies and gentlemen, I said on the PA, I know this defies belief, but we aren’t delayed in any way today. There is no gate hold, no ATC delay, and we have all the necessary paperwork to dispatch this flight.The catering, such as it is, was placed on board 20 minutes ago and all of […]

This article originally appeared in Aviation Safety, Feb. 2005. Controllers are just like pilots: All are human and make mistakes. Most are good, know the rules, do everything they can to make your flight efficient and safe, and make sensible judgments. Only a tiny fraction are highly paid chair-warmers too lazy or bored to have […]

It’s been a busy year for everyone here in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. From product roll-outs to the ongoing fight against user fees, AVweb‘s audio news team was onhand (with microphones) to get reactions and exclusive commentary from the industry’s biggest players. In case you missed any of our daily audio coverage, here’s a quick recap of […]