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In my early days as an aircraft owner in the late 1960s and 1970s, taking my airplane in for its annual inspection was not much different from taking my car in for 10,000-mile service. I’d make an appointment with the shop, taxi the plane over to the maintenance hangar, hand over the keys and maintenance […]

Northwest Airlines and Metropolitan Airports Commission A lot of folks, both in the aviation business and others, have had to face the reality of increased costs and hardships in the post-9/11 era (NewsWire, May 3). Is it too hard to understand that the private aircraft owner is going to have to share some of these […]

Computers have made aviation so much easier. A mere decade ago, flight engineers were trained to compute weight and balance figures on something called “a piece of paper.” These figures were then used in the operation of the aircraft.Then a major breakthrough happened and the airlines came up with a radio dispatch system that was […]

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Cessna Owner and Pipers Magazines. Of all the hangar talk one encounters at airports, the subject of using automotive gasoline in airplane engines is among the most contentious. Some — particularly owners who have an autogas supplemental type certificate (STC) — will tell you that it’s perfectly safe, […]

Sport Pilot Not Ready Yet The EAA does not understand that OMB represents the public (NewsWire, Apr. 19).Way back when I was in an Air Force Reserve meeting at Warner Robins, Ga., the Chief Engineer of the Chandler Evans Company emphasized, “Never hatch a half-baked scheme!”There has been no evidence that NPRM FAA-2001-11133 has approached […]

Trying to guess what Mother Nature is going to do is risky business. I had to wait three weeks to get my yard aerated because it wouldn’t stop raining. I finally got it done, threw down a bunch of grass seed and I bet it hasn’t rained an inch in the month since.Mother Nature will […]

ATC Training Issue This radio exchange actually took place between a Cessna 172 (with an instrument student and instructor on board) and a Class C ATC controller in the Midwest. One day prior, the instructor contacted the tower by phone to determine the best time that workload would allow controllers to perform an Airport Surveillance […]

This article concerns our industry’s activity over the past several months. “It’s The Economy.” Thanks to our politicians and the media, this overworked phrase has become somewhat annoying. Annoying as it is, it does seem to describe the current tone of the general aviation activity that my staff is seeing. As the economy improves, our […]

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