FBOs

Last month I told you I’d spent an evening here in the pilot’s lounge at the virtual airport writing two letters. I wrote them after returning from a trip where I had seen, talked to, and briefly flown with, an airport kid, a kid who wanted to fly more than anything in the world. The […]

Over the years I have been a sole airplane owner, been involved in a two-person partnership in owning an airplane, and been in another partnership of four people that owned two airplanes. I have also belonged to several airplane ownership clubs, and I’ve been an airplane renter. I think this probably qualifies me to speak […]

Before getting into this month’s column, I’d like try and address one of the most common question I’m getting from readers of my series on piston engine operation: “John, you talk about fuel-injected engines, but I don’t have one. What can I do in my Cessna 182, with its O-470 carbureted engine?” Managing Carbureted Engines […]

It’s another one of those late evenings here in the pilot’s lounge. I’m here because it’s a place that is conducive to thinking. I returned from a trip a couple of hours ago, put the airplane away and started to leave the airport but turned around and came back here to the lounge where it […]

From the friendly folks at FSSes (Flight Service Stations), who are sort of stepchildren in the ATC system, to the controllers at the ARTCCs (air route traffic control centers), the personnel in ATC (air traffic control) are on the whole, with rare exceptions, men and women are the greatest public servants in the history of […]

Probably the most dangerous thing about general aviation is that one must be around propellers — after all, they are attached to airplanes — and when a human being encounters a rotating propeller, the prop invariably wins. The result is usually disastrous to some part of the human body. I personally know two — not […]

Steven Hinton was born April 1,1952, in China Lake, California. When Steve was seven years old, his parents bought ahouse in Claremont, Calif., next to Ed Maloney. Ed’s son Jim became Steve’s bestfriend in second grade — they grew up together, became pilots together, andwork together in the museum Ed started, Planesof Fame Museum in […]

The combination of the arrival of spring and daylight savings time seems to have a way of luring pilots back to their airports from months of hibernation. Here at the virtual airport, the pilot’s lounge is getting more crowded. From where I sit, I hear plans being made by a group to fly out for […]

Dave Oglesbee was born August 15,1962, in Camanche, Iowa. His dad noted his interest in RC airplanes, gave him achance at the real thing, and Dave was hooked. He worked at the airport for payfor flying lessons and missed his high school senior group picture to take hisprivate checkride. He earned an ROTC scholarship to […]

I guess I’m mean, but this is one of my favorite ways to trigger “go-around mode” in training and on checkrides. Not for me the old saw of “fire truck on the runway” or the like … much too mundane. I usually wait until the power is all the way off, flare is complete, and […]