Flight Training

The FAA is withdrawing a rule that would have allowed greater use of simulators for instrument training because two people thought it was a bad idea. The agency issued a final rule Dec. 3 that allowed up to 20 hours (up from 10) on an approved training device toward an instrument rating. It also got […]

Letter of the Week:First Officers on the Ground I’m sure the FOs can work remotely – but why? The airline is still paying the FO’s salary. Additionally, how will the FO get stick time? The incidental expenses the airlines saves by keeping the FO home likely won’t pay the legal settlement the next time a […]

Peace and quiet is something that every parent has longed for at some time or another. A lack of chatter is not so great when in the clouds and rain-being vectored for a parallel ILS approach to a major airport like Atlanta. You instantly miss the constant stream of quick-paced banter of the controller. It […]

Back in the dark ages when j-school looked like it might lead to a sort of career, I was asked on a fall registration form to “state minor course of study, if any.” With all the thoughtful consideration a 21-year-old could muster, I checked the box next to Asian history. Somehow, sociology seemed boring and […]

At the risk of being mistaken, at least momentarily, for some doe-eyed Pollyanna, today’s blog will depart from the usual gloom for a brief bout of unabashed aviation boosterism. No, it’s not the Xanax kicking in, just soaring inspiration from seeing how much enthusiasm and creative vitality some people bring to general aviation through the […]

Monday must have been one of those schizophrenic days that only a federal agency could suffer. Just as The Washington Post broke a story that the FAA had hired its own lobbyist to suggest ways of speeding up the drone flight approval process against warnings by its own safety inspectors, it was participating in the […]

I’ve been doing some work on the Cub so I’ve been driving back and forth to the airport a couple of times a day. Inbound this morning, I was about to duck into a gas station and had second thoughts. The posted price was $2.43. Sure enough, when I drove home-five hours later-it was $2.38. […]

Like a punch drunk fighter, I’ve grown accustomed to daily press stories about general aviation that either excoriate the industry-USA Today, for example-or cover the subject with such shallowness that it’s laughable. I think all of us have learned to roll with the blows and hope tomorrow brings better. On NBC News last night, it […]

Just because the vast majority of the airplanes most of us fly have their little wheel mounted on the nose instead of the tail doesn’t mean the nosewheel is immune to abuse. Nor does it mean we can ignore the nosewheel’s peculiarities, even if an airplane with one is much easier to handle on the […]

Letter of the Week:Third Class Medical Issues Regarding Woody Beck’s article on the decline of GA: He states the following,“Over the longer term, changes in the third class medical will have no significant impact because its cost is negligible, roughly the cost of 15 gallons of av fuel every two years for us older pilots.” […]