AVweb Insider

Non-pilots may be hard to deal with, but we all must interact with them from time to time, and this was my time. I was pickleballing at the local pickleballing venue with a group of tottering and doddering old friends. We were staying out of the kitchen and, because of our advanced age, found ourselves […]

One of the hazards of this job is inadvertently becoming a poser. It’s easy to appear more knowledgeable about topics on which you have no direct experience so the golden rule is to attribute every fact to a credible source. Still, there seem to be a lot of people who think I have personal experience […]

While I am all in favor of a healthy respect for weather among VFR pilots, I also believe there could be excessive fear instilled during the training process that makes an inadvertent encounter with IMC more dangerous than it needs to be. Having gotten my private-pilot certificate in 1981, I was a VFR-only pilot for […]

The forums and news threads went berserk when Garmin sounded the warning horn last year that the parts bins stocked with major components to maintain the world-conquering GNS-series navigators are thinning, and that owners should start planning an upgrade. Garmin Service Advisory (23018 Rev. B) makes it official, saying in part that display repairs for […]

As you can imagine, we get a lot of email here at AVweb and it’s frankly overwhelming. Over the years I’ve learned to discern the potentially fruitful communications in terms of newsworthiness, and I open and read them carefully. The rest, I’m afraid, run the risk of remaining unopened on our server and for that […]

You talk too much  You even worry my pet You just talk…  Talk too much       Joe Jones What a nice day to go flying! I had spent an hour or so committing flagrant acts of aviation with my rag-wing Cessna 140, and after the obligatory three touch-and-goes, I parked it next to my […]

So, when it first popped up on one of the aviation networks that I frequent I decided not to bite on it. The crew of a United 737 MAX 8 misjudged a taxiway turn and collapsed the left main in the mud. Minor incidents like this are a tough call when it comes to news […]

Cirrus took its marketing strategy in a new and different direction with January 11’s livestream “reveal” of the new G7 version of the SR-series piston singles. As a “mature” pilot in the process of reestablishing instrument currency, I had mixed feelings on the overriding message. The livestream made no secret that Cirrus is targeting customers […]

I lead a double life and in my other manifestation I am but a humble merchant who hawks his wares at a public market in a little mountain town that is crammed with tourists every summer. Our little winery seems to make products that those enjoying the clean air and drop-dead stunning landscape like to […]

“And these children that you spit on  As they try to change their worlds  Are immune to your consultations  They’re quite aware of what they’re going through.”                           David Bowie My voyage from the then of me being a crusty old airline captain to […]