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Remember when the holidays meant a big turkey dinner at Grandma’s? The table would be overflowing with family, friends, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. That used to mean about a two- or three-hour drive. Now it means we agonize over when and where we fly. Do we visit my wife’s parents on Thanksgiving or do […]

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Ben Franklin Old Ben had it right, but only half-right. He pointed out that such people don’t “deserve” either, but failed to point out they won’t GET security, either. There is no such thing, for we […]

Hack started it, another, er, discussion, that’s it, discussion, in the pilot’s lounge here at the virtual airport. Hack was explaining to one of the yuppie pilots that no self-respecting human being would ever allow a bartender to serve him a martini with ice floating in it. Hack was explaining real loud. As the exchange […]

William Langewiesche was born June12, 1955 — 11 years after his father Wolfgang had published Stickand Rudder, the classic book on the art of flying. William grew up inairplanes, and learned to fly the gauges before he could see over theglareshield. He soloed at 14, flew air taxi and charters to put himself throughStanford, then […]

There are several programs designed to interest young people in aviation – the most notable of which is the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles – but there are only a very few that actually get the kids started flying as genuine student pilots. Rick Durden recently wrote about what is obviously the largest of these, […]

An airplane, especially an antique open-cockpit biplane built of wood and fabric and luck, is an idea with wings. The idea lives in each spar and brace, in every particle of imagination and know-how and tinkering that brought it all together and keeps it alive. And like any idea, it has the power to make […]

Up until this point I’ve been having fun writing this column. This installment isn’t going to be fun, at least for me. This is my third attempt at writing this particular column. I’ve been looking for a way to take the sting out of telling someone that they are doing something wrong. If anyone could […]

While hanging around and working at the Sarasota-Bradenton airport (SRQ) in the mid-50s, I became aware of a small group of pilots my father called “airport bums.” It was years before I realized that was intended as a derogatory term, for they were my heroes. That was probably why Dad put me into forced labor […]

AVweb’s AOPA Expo 2001 News Team: Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside, Executive Editor Dave Higdon, Special Projects Editor Brenda Carol, Photography AVweb‘s AOPA Expo 2001 Coverage Includes:

Members Voice Support For AOPA Efforts And Progress Since 9/11… Everyone knew coming into AOPA Expo 2001 that the world tilted a little more than usual toward the theater of the absurd in the nine weeks since civil aircraft became weapons of terror in the hands of hateful fanatics. Everyone in aviation knew because all […]