Learn to Fly

By normal aviation standards, seaplanes are boring as hell. They’re slow, tend to be fuel hogs, often don’t carry much because they’re hauling around a boat or two and, like boats, they have to be pumped out and they rust. Who would want one? Yet, in the dedicated community of pilots who fly these things, […]

The other day, when PBS announced they will air a Nova special about Solar Impulse on January 31, I typed “Solar Impulse” into AVweb‘s search engine to see how we’ve covered it. I found 73 hits, dating back to 2003. We covered the project pretty thoroughly, from inception to completion, yet the goal of the […]

Students of all ages who are working toward a career in aviation can find scholarships available from a wide range of sources. GAMA said last week it is now accepting applications from high school students for its Edward W. Stimpson “Aviation Excellence” Award, named for the organization’s founder. The $2,000 award will go to a […]

Pilots who have an instrument ride or any other certificate or rating tested by an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) are being asked to let the Flight School Association of North America (FSANA) know how much they pay for the flight. The group is conducting a survey to see how rates compare. “While FSANA is […]

You’d think a flight instructor would limit stupidity. You’d be wrong, as many accidents involved CFIs reacting too slowly to student silliness. Then there’s the Kentucky instructor whose student wouldn’t do anything dumb, so he intervened, setting the Cessna 172’s fuel selector to OFF within, he thought, gliding distance of the runway. Only the instructor […]

I mostly make my living as a flight instructor, so I often fly with ten or more students in a week. Not all are “student pilots” in the FAA sense of the term, but they’re all flying with me to get instruction of some sort. They’re seeking new certificates, instrument ratings, tailwheel transitions or they’re […]

Sooner or later, Icon was going to get tested and the test came this week, probably sooner than any of us might have expected. The fatal crash of an Icon A5 owned by retired baseball star Roy Halladay dwelled above the fold on some newscasts and websites. It’s a big deal in the sports world […]

After a fashion, airplanes are toys. No, not all of them, because an Air Tractor earns its keep applying chemicals and Caravans haul skydivers and boxes. But if you own an old taildragger or a beater Cherokee, it’s a recreational toy. With that in mind, I’ve noticed some new developments in the toy market and […]

Citing the growing global pilot shortage, the University of North Dakota on Wednesday announced it has established a $1.5 million scholarship endowment for high-achieving students to earn their wings. The endowment is funded by $500,000 contributions from the nonprofit UND Aerospace Foundation, UND Promise Scholarship Program and the James C. Ray Foundation. The scholarships will […]

I got an email this week from a reader on the cusp of making a small fleet purchase for a few flight schools. I was asked for an opinion on the various choices in the training market. The more you think about this, the more difficult the decision actually is. There’s simply no perfect airplane […]