Flight Training

At AirVenture, a California startup called Kitty Hawk rolled out a unique new multi-rotor aircraft that’s essentially similar to a large drone. It will carry a single person and be manufactured under ultralight standards. AVweb interviewed Kitty Hawk’s Todd Reichert for this AirVenture video. view on YouTube

Jeff Van West interviews Greg Roark, the founder of the Aspen Aerospace Alliance and the Director of Aeronautics for the Aspen School District. Roark leads a program that weaves aerospace into the curriculum from grade three through high school. The most involved students will graduate high school with single-engine, multi-engine and instrument ratings. Duration: File […]

Simulator maker Redbird brought a production version of its Guided Independent Flight Training (GIFT) to Oshkosh. The system has been many years and several versions in the making, but is now for sale with 33 modules teaching basic flight, private-pilot maneuvers and emergencies. Each module describes and demonstrates the topic, guides the student through flight […]

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 […]