Flight Training

Icon Aircraft hopes to deliver 15 aircraft by the end of this year and ramp up to 200 for 2018. In an interview at AirVenture 2017, CEO Kirk Hawkins said six aircraft have been delivered to customers who have so far been pleased with the aircraft. “Customers love it,” said Hawkins, who added that resumption […]

At AirVenture 2017, Cirrus announced a bold new approach to training pilots new to Cirrus aircraft—including new and used SR22 and SR20 models. Called Cirrus Embark, the complimentary transition training program applies to any new Cirrus owner (including all partners in shared ownership situations) whether the aircraft was purchased directly from Cirrus or from a […]

When I got my first job flying freight in the mid-1970s, every single pilot I met was a white male. I didn’t really think anything about it—it was the way of the world. There were no women flying for the airlines or the military and the WASPs of World War II were not even a […]

Sometimes you just get set up. You got up early, looked out the window at a nearly clear sky and figured you’d fly the 80 miles or so to visit a buddy and hang out at his airport instead of yours. You whipped out your tablet for a full briefing and to make sure there […]

Ever had a gear-up landing? I’ll tell you about mine in a moment, but first, when I was assembling today’s video it occurred to me that retractable landing gear systems are quite the test of human factors engineering. And the modern trend toward high-performance aircraft with fixed gear—Cirrus mainly—is basically genius at work. I swept […]

Today’s blog was going to be a PSA to set straight the horrible thrashing general aviation took at the hands of yet another misguided network news feature. But, damn it, foiled again. The piece in question ran Sunday night on NBC’s Dateline and chronicled the story of McKenzie Morgan, a plucky 17-year-old student pilot who […]

The U.S.’s busiest FAA flight examiner was remembered as a generous, humble man whose love of aviation knew no bounds. Services were held last week at Madison County Executive Airport near Huntsville, Alabama, for Clyde Harold Shelton, who died after a brief illness at the age of 86. He stopped flying last Nov. 30, having […]

I just got home after delivering a brand-new American Champion Denali Scout from the factory to a dealer in Boise. One of the integral parts of any ferry flight is a careful preflight inspection—both for the pilot’s safety but also to assure that any little thing that is wrong is fixed at the factory before […]

The Navy says problems with the oxygen generation and pressurization systems on T-45 and F-18 series aircraft have been a factor in the deaths of at least four of its pilots in the last 10 years and it’s now made fixing the problem a top priority. The announcement came out of a report that was […]

Lufthansa Airlines has chosen the SR20 for its primary training airplane, Cirrus announced on Tuesday. Lufthansa Aviation Training has ordered 25 airplanes to lead its ab initio, multi-crew pilot certificate, and other flight-training programs in Goodyear, Arizona. The SR20s will be used to train pilots from many airlines besides Lufthansa, including Swiss Air, Austrian Airlines, […]