AVweb Insider

A staple of the aviation magazine business used to be stories about how a general aviation airplane could be used to fly faster and cheaper than the airlines. The evergreen headline was, We Beat the Airlines. Right. You dont see those stories much anymore and I neednt explain why. But could they come back? Could […]

Its an article of faith that one reason flying activity is in the crapper is because avgas costs, on average, about $6 a gallon. Maybe thats true, maybe it isnt, but like many of us in the aviation business, I suspect the high price of fuel is just one reason for declining flight activity and […]

Heres my definition of a bad day: You overhauled your Barons IO-520s a couple of years ago using cylinders from ECI and now the FAA would like you to remove those jugs and replace them with something else. Round it off and call that about $25,000. Thats the basic gist of a proposed airworthiness directive […]

If the world is full of opposites-and I think it is-the opposite of critical thought is group think or herd mentality. Group think is the tendency to go along with whatever new idea or trend comes along because, well, everyone else thinks its a good thing. Its just laziness by another name and were all […]

Why hasnt some simulation enthusiast created a simulator to teach a child how to ride a two-wheeled bicycle? Imagine all the advantages of a simulator like that. You could teach in any weather, day or night, with no more skinned knees or jogging to keep up as they figure it out. And just think of […]

When I heard that Mark Baker was tapped as the new AOPA president, my first thought was…could he be the son of that other Baker, the one whose name almost always appeared appended to the word colorful? But no, no apparent relation. By now, you will have perused Bakers resume and formed your own opinions. […]

Ive always figured there were two theories of aircraft ownership: the magic carpet school and the ticking time bomb philosophy. The former gets tangled up in the romance and passion of airplanes as a means of justifying virtually any aircraft-related expense, no matter how irrational or how large. The time bomb view, which is what […]

Following last weekends debut of Planes and my conversation with some kids who had just seen it, I was vicariously imagining what it would take to inspire them to become pilots by remembering what inspired me. This isnt difficult, because I can pin it down to about the year, if not the day. It wasnt […]

On Interstate 4, southwest of Orlando, is a conspicuous power pole consisting of one large circle topped by two smaller ones, the lines tacked to their arcs. Its a major power feed into Orlandos Disney World. And the fact that theres not a four-year-old alive whod miss the reference to Mickey Mouse makes it a […]

For the past five years, as general aviation has drifted through weak sales and anemic development, the pace of new product rollouts has been similarly flat. This year, as I mentioned in my opening day blog, the industry seems to be stirring, reflecting optimism, if not confidence in full flight. Even in slow years, Ive […]