AVweb Insider

When Diamond’s presser on its new-OK, planned-electric DA40 arrived yesterday, it almost went into the bit bucket as just another in an ever longer list of e-airplane announcements. But then … wait, this is Diamond, not a garage startup looking for starry-eyed VC dollars. Nonetheless, I have learned to carefully word search press releases for […]

Last month I spent considerable time reflecting on the balance between risk versus reward, having completed the last leg of my journey home from Montana in less than favorable conditions. What drove me to reflect on those tense moments when the smoke obscured my visibility beyond expectations was an airplane that took off later that […]

Famed vocalist Tony Bennett performed his last show in August with singer Lady Gaga. As detailed in this 60 Minutes report, Bennett, 95, suffers from Alzheimer’s but, incredibly, he still recalls the American songbook well enough to sing it by heart and from the heart. Today’s blog is a personal remembrance of Bennett singing a […]

What really scares you in an airplane? No, I’m not talking about turning the logbooks over to your IA for an annual on an aging Bonanza, but getting whacked in an accident. Is it a stall/spin? An engine failure on takeoff? Icing? Or do you even think about it? I don’t obsess about it, but […]

Many are the disadvantages of being an adult. We eat kale, pretend to like PBS Newshour and file tax returns with no idea what we’re signing. On the upside, I can now buy that ‘68 Camaro I lusted after in high school but would look like a dork driving it at 55 in the passing […]

One of my favorite lines (of many) in the Vietnam-era film Full Metal Jacket is uttered when the colonel is jacking up Private Joker: “… inside every VC there is an American trying to get out. It’s a hardball world, son. We’ve gotta keep our heads until this peace craze blows over!” I’ve cleansed the […]

Late afternoon sunlight danced through grimy venetian blinds as Ernie, the new kid from the AVweb mail room, nervously set an email on my Remington Model 7 typewriter. He eyed the Walther PPK, weighing down the rejected manuscripts atop my in-basket, as I scanned the message from reader Jim Mehling, a Falcon 50 pilot who’d […]

Yeah, geez, I’m trying to get inspired here by Inspiration4, SpaceX’s latest launch. Call me crazy, or jaded or just thick as a mud fence, but it’s not coming. Maybe someone can help me peel the clouded scales from my eyes. Maybe it’s those cheap looking Sci-Fi space suits or maybe I was expecting to […]

I wonder what the vetting process is for items that reach FAA Administrator Steve Dickson’s desk. There’s a lot going on at the agency these days and he’s just one guy. Something I’m sure he’s noticed, however, is how many of his valuable seconds and minutes are expended on the issues of the day that […]

I take my amusement where I find it and a reliable source seems to be when people see an AVweb video and suggest that my audio person should try a different mic or that my animator is channeling South Park. One reader told me my camera presence was OK, but the editing sucked. I’m doubled […]