AVweb Insider
AVweb Insider offers a curated collection of opinion pieces, personal narratives, and expert analyses that delve into the nuances of aviation. From firsthand pilot experiences to in-depth discussions on industry trends and safety considerations, this section provides readers with thoughtful perspectives that go beyond standard news reporting. Ideal for aviation professionals and enthusiasts seeking deeper insights into the flying world.
Who Wants To Be An Airline Pilot, Anyway?
From the Are-You-As-Fed-Up-By-This-Pandemic As-I-Am file, this video came pixeling across my Facebook feed last week. It was produced by the Allied Pilots Association, the pilot union of American Airlines. If whatever segment of the economy you’re working in is back to normal, the airline and travel industry definitely is not. The video takes a none-too-veiled […]
Vern And The Unknown Fairchild Pilot
On cryptocurrency exchanges one picture buys a thousand words, but magazines pay cash for words, so here’s a thousand about one photo I took in 1976 at Watsonville, California Muni (WVI). I was in college and attending my first fly-in. Despite tramping around airports since I was a kid, I was unaware that pilots routinely […]
A Toyota On The Moon: BT, DT
If you ask anyone who has done it what the overwhelming challenge of developing a new airplane is, it won’t have to do with weight, a suitable powerplant or lift and drag, but where the money is coming from to pay for it. That’s the first thing I thought of when I saw Toyota’s proposed […]
A Brief History Of Dispersals Over Iowadaho’s Wilderness
After abandoning the Santa Clara Valley for a new life on a small airport in rural Iowa, you’ll notice that your California flying buddies at Reid Hillview Airport (RHV) never visit, partly because they know if they leave their hangars unoccupied the county will raze them in its campaign to eliminate General Aviation. Additionally, everyone […]
CO Detectors? Let’s Go With Self Help First
In the aviation press, we’re occasionally enthralled by various fads and gadgets often propelled by what readers tell us they’re interested in. Sometimes these emerge from developmental trends in the industry, sometimes the flow goes the other way. That’s certainly the case with carbon monoxide detectors. I’ve done at least three rounds of trials with […]
Gen. Charles McGee: A Remembrance
As was anyone who ever had the honor to meet him, I was saddened to learn of the passing of General Charles McGee last week at age 102. Like many journalists, I had the chance to talk at length with McGee about his experiences as a Tuskegee Airman, and the rest of his distinguished 30-year […]
Most Of Us Know How To Stay Alive In An Airplane: Until We Don’t
When I was learning to fly more years ago than I care to reveal, the accident rate was 18.1/100,000, more than three times what it is now. Just 10 years before that, in 1960, the rate was a whopping 36.5. Crashes occurred at the rate of more than a dozen a day. Lots of causes, […]
Sleepwalking To 100UL
In yet another milepost in the galactically slow train wreck that is finding a replacement for lead-spiked avgas, the EPA has finally announced its intent to declare leaded fuel environmentally hazardous. And this time, says EPA, we’re serious so all you FAA footdraggers better pay attention. No, really. We mean it. But wait, hold up. […]
Where Is The Portrait of Captain Eddie?
The photo hanging above the old Victrola, old even for 1960, always intrigued me. Born illiterate and having made little effort to remedy that, I couldn’t read the inscription, but being six, I decided this man in the picture, wearing a military aviator’s uniform and an I’ve-seen-some-crazy-crap smirk, was my hero. I’d walked past that […]
