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Be sureto check out AVweb‘s exclusive image gallery from Heli-Expo 2001! Most should remember the lyrics of an old rock song that promised, “Oh, it never rains in southern California … it pours.” Well, that was the story for about half of the Helicopter Association International’s (HAI) annual Heli-Expo 2001. Off and on during the […]

Talk about a muscle machine! It looks the part, and it flies like it looks. I really hate to brag (you do believe that, right?), but I’m having so much fun with this beast, I just have to tell you about it. The Grumman (aka “Grumman Iron Works”) F8F Bearcat was first delivered in 1944, […]

Scott Puddy’s final installment in his icing trilogy sure was exciting, wasn’t it? Who doesn’t love a simple tale of Good versus Evil? Through able, one-sided storytelling, outright error and the liberal use of conjecture where the facts fail, Mr. Puddy obligingly spins up the moribund saga of Administrator v. Watkins into a life-like Hollywood […]

The playful bounce of a taildragger landing on a grass strip is now a sense memory for me, not just something I have read about and seen at the airport or on a video. Wood, fabric and all of 65 horsepower took to the air, and for a few moments, I was a Hurricane pilot […]

As blowouts go, it wasn’t bad at all. Most of us here at the pilot’s lounge survived the party to usher in the new millennium, century, decade, year, etc. About a week later a bunch of us were together at the airport to take care of some of the things one does in cold weather […]

Ray Dolby was born January 18,1933, in Portland, Ore. During 1949-52, he worked on various audio andinstrumentation projects at Ampex Corporation, and during 1952-57 he was mainlyresponsible for the development of the electronic aspects of the Ampex videotaperecording system. In 1957 he received a B.S. degree from Stanford University, and upon beingawarded a Marshall Scholarship […]

Many years ago when I was a whole lot younger than now, I was a championship athlete in a very competitive sport. When preparing for a competition, I always used to say, “Let my opponent have the skill, just let me be lucky!” When it comes down to a really tight situation in an airplane, […]

I‘m really glad that using the latest version of Unison Industries’ Limited Authority Spark Advance Regulator (LASAR) is far easier than installing it. Through no fault of the Unison’s LASAR hardware itself, a team comprised of one aircraft owner, one experienced IA, and one factory field representative from Unison managed to take six or seven […]

One Hundred Third Congress of the United States of America AT THE SECOND SESSION Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday, the twenty-fifth day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-four An Act To amend the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 to establish time limitations on certain civil actions against aircraft […]

Late last year, a decision was handed down by the first federal appellate court to interpret the General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994 (GARA), which immunized general aviation manufacturers for defects in aircraft or component parts older than 18 years. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in southern California carved a hole in GARA […]