AVweb Insider

At least weeks Aircraft Electronics Association show, famed aerobatic pilot Sean D. Tucker was the keynote speaker. The connection? Hes head of the EAAs Young Eagles program and a perfect choice for recruiting pilots. Hes enthusiastic, animated and knowledgeable. Im not sure AEA was the right audience for the pitch, but it was interesting to […]

In watching the wall-to-wall coverage of MH 370, Ive been struck how, absent any information, most sources discussing this event want to assume it was the work of a rational person, that it was carefully planned and that there was some overarching goal. Those who believe the airplane was flown into Central Asia and landed, […]

The daily media has-understandably–gotten into an absolute lather over the disappearance of and evident inability to find a state-of-the-art airliner, specifically Malaysians Flight 370. On CNN this morning, the talking heads were practically gasping trying to fill air time without so much as a shard of factual information to even hang intelligent speculation on. Welcome […]

I never thought Id say this, but I think Im becoming more sympathetic to people who dont like airplane noise. And Im not talking about fly-over noise-thats transient and it at least affords the option of momentarily looking up to see whats making it. I like that kind. Im talking about airport ground noise; the […]

About five years ago, when I was doing some research on used airplane prices, I had a disquieting revelation. When late-model Cessna 172s were listed, they were inevitably described as G1000 Skyhawks. It was as though we had crossed some invisible divide and the venerable old Hawk–really not much changed from the original collection of […]

I think people who have been in wars not only think about the experience differently than those who have not, but their views of it change as they grow older. I thought of this the other day when I was in the local YMCA waging my own daily war against gravity. You know, came a […]

I can rightly-but not necessarily proudly-claim dual citizenship in two Villages of the Damned: journalism and aviation. Journalism, that noble guardian of the public trust and traveler of the moral high road, has been utterly disrupted by the rise of countless internet news services and a young generation that doesnt read. In aviation, an asymptotic […]

It being general aviation and all, lots of businesses have learned to survive if not thrive on crumbs and scraps. It now looks like one company seems to be betting that AOPA left a bit of a feast on the table last summer when it summarily cancelled its annual fall exposition, lately called Summit. An […]

If youve been paying attention to our news columns, youve noticed that new aircraft sales have rebounded in late 2013 and early 2014, although they remain a far cry from the last spike in volume in 2007. For example, Cirrus was happy to report 276 aircraft sold in 2013, a nice bump from 2012, but […]

Call me a glutton for punishment, but Ive logged more than 4000 hours as a civilian primary flight instructor. Ive worked in both Part 61 and 141 schools and owned and operated one in the frozen tundra of eastern Michigan. Currently Im an instructor at a 142 school, which means I train pilots to go […]