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Private in 40 Hours Excellent article (Training, Jan. 21). I have never read such a down-to-earth (no pun intended) article about learning to fly. Learning to fly is on my “to do” list; now I have a set of benchmarks and a host of practical suggestions to make it happen.Thanks.Leon Weeks I received my private […]

When I first became an airplane owner 35 years ago, I hadn’t the slightest interest in aircraft maintenance. I had just relocated from New York to Southern California to pursue a career in the up-and-coming field of computer software. I’d earned my private pilot certificate four years earlier while a student at Dartmouth College, and […]

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FSS Privatization After reading several articles on the subject of ATC privatization, I read AVweb’s coverage of the government plan to privatize FSS (NewsWire, Jan. 22). This has the appearance of a back-door entry to ATC privatization. The move to turn ATC over to private entities has met some pretty stiff resistance from the aviation […]

Just recently, one of the regulars here at the pilot’s lounge of the virtual airport, Ed Williams, who in the real world is a plasma physicist, took a break in studying for the ATP written, stopped by and showed us one of the published questions on that written. It said: “Who should be advised if […]

In a recent report, the General Accounting Office (GAO) presented research on the air traffic controller workforce and the impending retirements that the FAA will be facing in the next few years. Some of the finer points of this report include the following statistics: This increases the risk that FAA will not have enough qualified […]

When I sat down with the Designated Pilot Examiner and handed him my logbook, it was pretty light: only three pages of entries, totaling 42.3 hours; just barely above the minimum. Of those 42 hours, 15.5 were PIC/solo, 5.3 solo cross-country, 3.0 dual simulated instrument, and 3.8 dual night. I expected the Examiner to comment […]

The employee cafeteria in the ground-training building is a sad place, filled with the forced boisterousness of the indentured student.Facing either a five-day stint for recurrent or the “serious time” of a five-week initial, the diners found in this plastic forked purgatory gather at round, Formica-covered tables festooned with pepper and salt shakers, the current […]

FSS Privatization There have been previous letters regarding privatization (AVmail, Dec. 29). For the record, the FAA is already in the process of privatizing the Flight Service Option. Bids are available for interested parties and a selection is to be made in March 2005.The Administration is going full speed to privatize the FSS option. Doing […]

Air Tour NPRM Part 135 certification for rides, eh? (NewsWire, Jan. 5.) What’s next — same for sky-diver and glider-tow pilots? After all, sky-divers pay for their ride, and so do those who get sailplanes hauled aloft. I’m afraid to pose this question to the FAA, because they just might think it’s a good idea.Bob […]