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F-16 Didn’t Attack School Corrections to your story on the F-16 in New Jersey (NewsWire, Nov. 8): “… school was not in session Wednesday night when a National Guard F-16 …” It belongs to the Air National Guard. The National Guard might infer the Army National Guard. There is a difference. “… fired on Little […]

As I was casting about for something to write about this month I came across the Air Traffic Bulletin at the FAA’s Web site. The FAA issues these bulletins on a regular basis and controllers are supposed to read them (the hard copy versions) during our normal duties. Most of us do (sooner or later) […]

VFR On Top A word of caution to those flying VFR on top (NewsWire, Nov. 1): Using the cloudbank as the horizon can be misleading. All too often, you can encounter cloudbanks that are slanted significantly.Joel Premselaar Two ex-military pilots noticed a big, filed out nick in the prop of their Cessna before take off […]

First permit me a program note. Starting this month, I’ll be taking over as editor-in-chief of Kitplanes, a marvelous magazine for the homebuilt-aircraft enthusiast. In that capacity, I’ll be getting more hands-on time with experimental engines than I ever thought possible, and will endeavor to report back here with the highlights of my travels. Generally, […]

Poor Flight Instructors At the age of 79 and some 61 years of flying and 40 years of instructing before open-heart surgery and two heart attacks years later finally made me stop flying, now I see that the poorly paid flight instructor has to make a logbook entry certifying the pilot he’s flying with is […]

The discussions here in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport range from prosaic to fairly intense. Last Sunday evening some of the regulars returned from their annual mid-October color tour on a particularly windy day and got into it over speeds to fly on the approach. The group had “ooh”-ed and “aahh”-ed at the […]

It all started when my friend and longtime AVweb columnist Rick Durden emailed me that he was going to be in the Bay Area for a few days, and suggested that we try to get together while he was on the Left Coast. (Rick is based in Grand Rapids, Mich., so I don’t often get […]

Bushmaster Accident This aircraft was one of only two Bushmaster 2000s built (NewsWire, Sep. 30). I had the pleasure of riding as a passenger on this airplane a few years ago thanks to the kindness of the owner, an airline pilot. It was with considerable sorrow that I viewed the video sequence of the crash. […]

I don’t get DCA layovers as often as I used to when I flew the MD-88. The 767 doesn’t get to our nation’s capital that often — at least from our base — and I haven’t been in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum for quite a few years.There usually isn’t enough time during a […]

The Auxiliary, or Aux, pages on GPS units are like those boxes stored up in the attics. “I know there’s some cool stuff in there. I really should dig through it one of these days.” It’s usually not until we’ve leveled off with two hours of cruise ahead and have decided all the navigation and […]