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Fair warning! I’m actually going to say some very nice things about the FAA in this column. If you don’t like this sort of thing, skip this column and comeback for the next one. Yes, yes, I’m of sound mind (well, as much as I ever am), and I am not being coerced, this is […]

Itwas a beautiful day to go flying. The air was smooth, the airplane performed flawlessly,and the landing was so smooth that one passenger asked “are we down yet?” As youcomplete your after-shutdown checklist and open the cabin door, you spot a stranger in awhite shirt and dark tie walking toward your airplane, and then your […]

Monday, July 27th, two days before the EAA AirVentureOshkosh 1998 convention even opened, the sound of airplanes atfull fury filled the air at Oshkosh Wittman field. Ten very special,very speedy airplanes wrestled for the finish line on the southend of runway 18-36, ending a 822 nautical mile cross countryrace. Though there have been air races […]

In the past week I have had twopeople approach me and explain that they wanted to buy twin-engine airplanes that theycould fly for their own business and pleasure then offer them for charter when theyweren’t using them. On the surface it sounds like a great idea, getting some revenue outof the airplane to help offset […]

Subpart A – General 119.1 Applicability. (a) This part applies to each person operating or intending to operate civil aircraft- (1) As an air carrier or commercial operator, or both, inair commerce or (2) When common carriage is not involved, in operations ofU.S.-registered civil airplanes with a seat configuration of 20 or more passengers, or […]

After a short rendezvous with friends at the TWA Ambassadors Lounge on June21, 1998, at Saint Louis Lambert Field, we headed for Gate 25 on Concourse C. We were metby a frenzy of news reporters stalking the gate area. Several Saint Louis area televisionstations eagerly awaited the arrival of a father and son, who would […]

Way back when the CAA (predecessor of the FAA) decreed that forty hours of training and practice wasa sufficient amount of experience and training for the PrivatePilot Certificate, it no doubt was. In fact, it was easy to preparea student for the responsibility of the Private Certificate withinthe allotted forty hours, thirty-five under FAR Part […]

NOTE: Since this comparison was originally written, Garmin introduced itslower-priced GPS III Pilot which also has ground-mapping capability. We’ve reviewed thisunit in a separate article. Lowrance subsequently introducedits own lower-priced unit, the AirMap 100, which we’ve also reviewedseparately. Quick Links Ground Mapping … What’s the Big Deal? Hardware Comparison Software Comparison GPS Receiver Performance Summary […]

You know you’re in trouble when a memo from the chief pilots starts out “It has come to the attention of this office…” Well, the FAA may be in trouble with me, because it has come to my attention that it may be official policy at (at least) one FSDO that simple failure to time […]

The typical owner-flown airplaneflies less than 100 hours a year. Since many of the costs of ownership-annual inspections,insurance, hangar, and so forth-are fixed costs that don’t vary with flight time, it’soften difficult to justify the cost of owning an airplane that flies so little. Some pilots want the benefit of owning their own airplane, even […]