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  Also see Mike Busch’s review of LightSPEED’s newest headset, the 25XL.   When Bose introduced the first active noise reduction (ANR) headset to the aviation community at Oshkosh in 1989, pilots who visited Bose’s big black trailer and tried the headset had two distinct reactions to it: Reaction A: “I just can’t believe how […]

Also see Mike Busch’s review of LightSPEED’s lower-priced ANR headsets, the 15K and 20K. LightSPEED 25XL I was really excited when I first discovered the LightSPEED 20K headset in June, 1997. After decades of flying with green headcrushers from David Clark, I was definitely looking for something that offered more quiet and comfort. I’d flown […]

Also, be sure to check out our collection of images from NBAA ’99: The people, the exhibit floor, the static display and, of course, the aircraft. Gloomy Outside The Hall, Sunny Inside NBAA ’99 Enjoys The Glow Of Growth In Business Aviation Users And Products Good thing it wasn’t an airshow. The mood and the […]

WhileI was at EAA AirVenture ’99 at Oshkosh this year, I ran into a friend of minenamed W. Roger Mullins, better known as Judge Mullins. For those of you who maynot remember or know, he’s the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) for the NationalTransportation Safety Board (NTSB) who restored Bob Hoover’s medical certificatewhen the FAA first […]

Gulfstream’s 61st G-V gave rise to the idea that there’s a veritable air force of them flying around. This is not your father’s Huey – it’s Bell’s model 427. The Bell 427’s front office. There is another Bell in your future – the Bell/Agusta 609 Tiltrotor. Cessna’s booth was one of the largest. Gulfstream’s booth […]

I hate what seems to be the officialFAA-approved way of handling short and soft fields, and it’s past time I yelled about it.There seems to be a good deal of confusion in the pilot ranks, and even among some CFIs,over the differences between short-field and soft-field technique, and I’dlike to comment on that, too. A […]

Lockheed Hudson In my career I have flown with many flying instructors, and likemost pilots, I remember my first flight quite vividly. It was in a Lockheed Hudson flownby Captain Harry Purvis AFC, and which took place at Camden near Sydney in 1949. Harry wasa highly-experienced and well-known pilot who had flown with Charles Kingsford […]

It’sbeen a very satisfying month in the Pilot’s Lounge. Summer is spooling down andthe temperatures are dropping, so our airplanes are actually starting to performon takeoff. Dave, tail wheel pilot, one of the Lounge regulars, and owner of aHusky, just passed his check ride for his instrument rating. Doing such a ratingin a tandem, tail […]

Wayne Handley was born March 26, 1939, in Carmel, Calif.After a career in Naval aviation, he built a successful crop dusting business in Salinas,Calif. In 1983, after years of performing for unappreciative grapes and lettuce, hedecided to enter the International Aerobatic Club competition. Finishing 20th out of 21was humbling enough to make him serious about […]

Bob Pond was born in May of 1924 in Edina,Minn. As WWII wound down, he, like other naval aviatiors, had his eyes set on a careerwith the airlines. Instead, he went back to school and worked part-time in the familybusiness, Advance Machine Company. The landscape of Mom and Pop grocery stores were beingreplaced by supermarkets […]