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If you think of the Flight Standards Service as the lawenforcement arm of the Federal Aviation Administration, then the Flight Standards DistrictOffice (or FSDO, pronounced “FIZZ-doe”) is the FAA’s equivalent of a policestation, and the Airworthiness, Operations, and Safety Inspectors who work at the FSDOsare the FAA’s cops. Most FAA cops…er, Inspectors…are good guys: dedicated, […]

Braly’s article is followed by AVweb’s own comments (by Doug Ritter). “I’m from the FAA and I’m here to help you.” When most of us hear thisphrase, we think of some poor pilot about to be given a lesson in bureaucraticarbitrariness courtesy of the FAA. Unfortunately, it’s not only pilots who must deal witha sometimes […]

The ICOM IC-A3 and -A22 transceivers are subject ofa separate AVweb review article. When ICOM introduced its new,lower-cost IC-A4 handheld VHF air band transceiver in March 1998, I was anxious to checkit out. ICOM dominates the aviation handheld transceiver market, and deservedly so: theirhandhelds have always been the best on the market in my opinion. […]

The lower-cost ICOM IC-A4 transceiver issubject of a separate AVweb review article. I‘ve used the ICOM IC-A20 andIC-A21, King KX-99, and Sporty’s A300. They’re all fine handheld aviation transceivers,and it has always been difficult for me to pick any one of them as the best-of-category. For many years, I’ve carried an ICOM IC-A20 in my […]

Read the NTSB report here. Eyewitness Account After 33 years of accident-free flying, I experiencedthe worst horror I have yet seen around 1:30 PST this Thanksgiving Day. I had flown theTwin Comanche from Mariposa to Carson City, a trip I have made many times over the years,to pick up my brother for the Thanksgiving holiday. […]

I recently returned from a marvelous trip from California to the Cayman Islands and return in my Cessna T310R, some 5,000 nautical miles and 27 flight hours in all. The outbound half of the trip was flown entirely at FL190, and the first third of the return trip was done at FL180. Although it was […]

Partnerships for those seekingto buy airplanes can be the solution to aircraft ownership for some, while for others theyare nothing but trouble from the very first day. Why do some succeed and others fail? Thereasons vary with the individuals involved, but the problems with most unsuccessfulaircraft partnerships usually revolve around money and scheduling the use […]

First, welcome to this, my first column for AVweb. I’m free to say what I want, without fear of censorship and only enough editing to keep me from embarrassing myself with major errors in spelling or grammar. That’s nice, but it does mean I can’t blame my editor for content, and all remaining mistakes are […]

NOTE: An actual photographic copy of this report is also available here in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). It is approximately one megabyte long and takes several minutes to download over a dial-up connection. U. S. Department of TransportationFederal Aviation Administration800 independence Ave., S WWashington D.C. 20591 FEB 17 1998 The Honorable Sam BrownbackUnited States […]

The airplane purchase process isa long and difficult one for most people, especially first-time airplane buyers. That’sbecause there is a great deal of hard work involved. If you want to be sure that theairplane is worth the purchase price and is in the condition that has been described toyou, several essential steps must be taken […]