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Growing up in New Jersey, I learned that when a stranger sitting on the bar stool beside you asks, “How ya doin?” the last thing the stranger wants to hear is how you’re doin’. Moving quickly past the obvious question — Why did I hang around bars as a kid? Because they had good bowling […]

As long as you don’t require flap-position sensing, an AoA system is a minor alteration. But the FAA may relent on more integrated systems soon. We’re told that somewhere there’s an Israeli air tactics manual that contains the line, “Speed is life.” Good thinking for fighter pilots, but down here in the more mundane world […]

The fresh bloom of interactive applications available on portable devices today is changing how pilots fly, but if SocialFlight.com has its way it may also be changing why you fly — and for all the right reasons. SocialFlight’s creators have lofty goals. They aim to improve your business connections, your social life, your flying life, […]

“Kick the tires, light the fires.” So goes a popular, flippant saying about preflight inspections. Most of the time, that’s what we and various accident reports would label an “inadequate preflight inspection.” Sometimes-immediately after stopping long enough to drop off or load a passenger, for example-it might be adequate. After all, we just flew it […]

Each week, we run a sampling of the letters received to our editorial inbox here in AVmail. One letter that’s particularly relevant, informative, or otherwise compelling will headline this section as our “Letter of the Week,” and we’ll send the author an official AVweb baseball cap as a “thank you” for interacting with us (and […]

As the temperature plummets and the snow flies, the hangar door may not open until spring. Here’s how to put the airplane to bed correctly. More than ever the need for following manufacturer guidelines for aircraft and engine storage has come to the fore. This is particularly true when the aircraft is parked outside or […]

Certification functionality and bankruptcy issues, plus a fair does of malaise, plagued many early adopters of Eclipse jets, but there are 263 jets in the wild now reaching a combined 200,000 total flight hours — and the new Eclipse ownership experience has changed. The early Eclipse experience was a master class in “the pioneers get […]

Each week, we run a sampling of the letters received to our editorial inbox here in AVmail. One letter that’s particularly relevant, informative, or otherwise compelling will headline this section as our “Letter of the Week,” and we’ll send the author an official AVweb baseball cap as a “thank you” for interacting with us (and […]

Fly-by-wire control system are standard issue in military aircraft — including drones — and in major new transport aircraft. Within three years, Diamond says it hopes to offer such systems for light aircraft and it’s further along the developmental road than we imagined. When we visited Diamond Aircraft’s skunkworks in Austria earlier this year, the […]

It holds promise for higher capacity batteries, but also risks for fires and explosions. Owners should tread cautiously. For the great wide world of transportation, the lithium-ion battery is the shining city on the hill, that pivotal bit of technology that will have us whizzing around in silent cars banishing the evils of carbon dioxide. […]