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When Diamond announced its diesel-powered Twin Star three years ago, we figured the companys grasp on reality was, at best, tenuous. In the current market, who could possibly be interested in a new light twin? We were wrong, of course. Diamond has done well with the Twin Star and having flown the airplane, it reminds […]

User Fees Thanks for your great article [on user fees; NewsWire, Mar. 13]. I am consistently amazed about how intensely they (the airlines and the FAA) keep pushing a bad idea. Forgive me for stating the obvious, but are we seriously taking advice from companies whose business plan was something along the lines of, “Lose […]

Galaxy Quest is truly one of my favorite movies, a splendid yet warm-hearted send-up of every schlocky sci-fi series you’ve ever seen. In it, we learn that the crew’s motto — “Never give up, never surrender” — begins its bane but concludes its savior.Recently, this phrase has been threading through my gray matter like some […]

This article originally appeared in Aviation Safety, December 2003. Each pilot rating or certificate is a hard-earned trophy that rewards pilots for their efforts, not with a shiny sparkle from a shelf in the den, but with heightened skill for flying the airplane. They stand as testaments to the pilot’s ability to eke utility out […]

GOING TO SUN ‘N FUN?While you’re at the show, please take a moment to visit our sponsors’ booths. ADVERTISER BOOTH NUMBERS Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA) SNF-010 Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Co. B-004-009 Aviation Supplies & Academics (ASA) B-059-061 Avemco C-055-056 Avidyne D-043-044 Official Sponsor of AVweb at SnF 2006 Bose Corporation E-014, SNF-009 […]

Sometimes I just can’t fathom what makes aircraft owners do some of the things they do. Particularly amazing to me are some of the mechanical problems that aircraft owners elect to live with rather than fix.Now I’m just as averse to spending money as the next guy (and probably more than most). In fact, I’ve […]

Taxi Into Position and Hold — Not! I would like to inform you that taking away TIPH is going to cause delays (NewsWire, Mar. 9). Places like TEB airport are going to have it the worst, where staffing is way below the numbers. They cannot open up the position needed in order for the local […]

Damn, it’s early! I know it is really three hours later, body-wise, because I live on the east coast, but it still feels like 5 a.m. A light rain is falling on LAX this morning. Not enough to get my uniform wet and certainly not enough to justify a rain poncho as I head out […]

(In)Security There is a trend that is happening at a lot of small general aviation airports. There is so much extreme security that it is hard for pilots to get to their own airplane, which tends to make the pilots so mad that they don’t care about any pilot-watch programs or security measures.Douglas Humble ATC […]

This article originally appeared in IFR Refresher, April 2005. When we depart on an instrument flight we expect that the journey will progress normally to our intended destination. That, of course, is not a realistic expectation, as anybody at the NTSB can tell you. Because the chance of something going wrong is always there, we […]