FBOs

Asis the case with many of my columns on AVweb, a reader who wrote andasked for an article on the Ercoupe inspired this one. Our reader had this tosay: You should do an article on the Ercoupe. What other plane can you buy for less than $15,000 that cruises at 110 mph, burns less than […]

No, I haven’t changed my mind about theusefulness (and the dangers) of the classic early descent to MDA and flying along levellooking for the runway, nor the usefulness (and the dangers) of doing CANPA, the so-called”Constant Angle Non Precision Approach” when appropriate. But my previous column obviously needs a little follow-up. Like theseven blind men, […]

Winteris finally getting a grip here at the virtual airport. Airplane owners aresniffing the air and have set up engine heaters. Lots of hangars have airplanesplugged into wall sockets, as owners hope their steeds will start on the coldmornings without damaging the engine. The regulars here at the Lounge arestarting to look forward to our […]

First of all, congratulations on getting down safely. What was that last200 feet like? We were about a hundred and fifty feet from touchdown and to have a landinggear come through your windshield and the windshield come flying into your lapis kind of a strange sensation. The airplane on top didn’t really push us downthat […]

Aletter from a reader who had an unpleasant experience at a non-towered airportprompted this column. He wrote the following account: I was recently making a straight-in final to a non-towered airport. Monitoring the Unicom frequency, I was aware of another airplane in the pattern flying touch-and-goes with a student. Since I was approaching from the […]

Eleanor Watterud Wagner was born November29, 1914, in Glasgow, Mont. Growing up in North Dakota, she and her brother spent much oftheir spare time at local airports and began a scrapbook of aviation photos and newsclips. When Eleanor was 14, the family moved from the midwest to Long Beach, Calif. Therethey found a mecca for […]

I suspect Cap’n Jepp is rolling in hisgrave over the latest Briefing Bulletin – Vertical Navigation (VNAV), dated 12 NOV 99 -from Jeppesen in Denver. Not that it’s Jeppesen’s fault; they’re just charting the latestindustry foolishness. But Captain E. B. Jeppesen was an airman of the old school, and Ibelieve he would have rejected VNAV […]

Wehave a December tradition here in the Pilot’s Lounge that some would regard asoverly maudlin or sentimental, but it is our way, and we like it. A significantnumber of the folks who fly from our little, virtual airport celebrate thewinter holidays. As a result, we always set aside one evening for folks to bringin food […]

Whenthe United States was celebrating its 200th anniversary back in 1976, theChairperson of the Ninety-Nines asked Fay Gillis Wells, one of the originalorganizing founders of the Ninety-Nines,to come up with an idea to participate in the celebration. Fay’s answer was theInternational Forest of Friendship. Fay, who has outstanding skills at gettingpeople to do things, somehow […]

Henry Haigh was born in 1924 inAnn Arbor, Mich. It wasn’t long before he was flying aerobatic competitionsusing gas-powered RCs. Uncle Sam taught him how to fly real airplanes, but WWIIended before Henry could get into it. After some time off to raise his familyand start a business, Henry bought a Ryan PT-22 and resumed […]