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Continental Crankshaft Failure Just to let you know we have had a crankshaft failure on a Continental IO-520 factory rebuild with 230 hours on the engine. This could be something to watch as we wait results from Continental on cause.Dan KlaesBettles Air Chicago VFR Corridor I’m sure that the FAA is not happy about being […]

About the only word that comes to mind when assessing the 2003 version of EAA Sun ‘n Fun is “dialectic” — that is, the annual spring aviation celebration generated generally opposing reactions from those who came, saw, bought and bartered. At the seven-day fly-in that ended Tuesday, aircraft and kit manufacturers mostly reported good business […]

The Death Of An Airport I have an idea! Let’s have a fly-in at Chicago for single-engine General Aviation aircraft owners! As we strive to do at all our fly-ins, we’ll show the people of Chicago how nice, professional, and interesting General Aviation can be.Since Mayor Daley doesn’t see any value in General Aviation airports […]

EAA Sun ‘n Fun opened on a strong note April 2, and into the weekend gained attendance and momentum as the fans of aviation’s spring fling adjusted to the new Wednesday-through-Tuesday pattern adopted this year. But despite the schedule alteration, the best parts of Sun ‘n Fun remained unchanged: Plenty of ultralights in Paradise City, […]

This article originally appeared in the September 2002 issue of IFR Refresher and is reprinted here by permission. The traditional approach to unusual attitude recovery training has become more of a drill than a lesson. Basically, instructors ask students to close their eyes, take their feet and hands off of the controls and put their […]

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Sport Pilot The State Of The Industry… We’ve waited and waited, the excitement has come and gone, but while foreign companies wait to send an initial wave of invading aircraft compliant with the requirements of the elusive Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) category, U.S. companies are sitting tight … and, for the most part, are quite […]

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Midweek Opening Thins Crowds If we had to pick one word to describe the mood at Sun ‘n Fun’s opening day on Wednesday, April 2, it would be: tentative. What with war jitters and a soft economy looming, we didnt expect to see record crowds and we generally didn’t. A couple of exhibitors told us […]

This article appeared in the January 2002 edition of Aviation Safety and is reprinted here by permission. Aircraft components are tested and retested. Manufacturers are subjected to inspection, airplanes are inspected, mechanics are inspected. The goal: Nothing mechanical should go wrong without plenty of warning.There is one part that bucks that trend. When called on, […]