AVweb Insider

“Well, of course I expected you to think it was me. I would have been insulted and disappointed if you hadn’t.” This was my immediate thought after I got a text and a couple of Facebook notifications Tuesday discreetly inquiring if it was me who took out a hangar door at Venice Tuesday while propping […]

It’s in life’s moments of sheer misery that you’re most likely to question and perhaps rearrange your priorities. This occurred to me as I sat in an airplane Saturday with sweat running in rivulets inside the surgical mask I was wearing. Then I heard a PA announcement that would be absurd if this weren’t 2020: […]

As we in central New Jersey endure a fourth year of summer Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) covering the area surrounding the Trump Bedminster Golf Course, I have to reflect on the fight those of us in general aviation have waged to bring a sensible solution to a situation that has damaged the aviation community in […]

In 2015, after George Lucas had sold the Star Wars franchise, he got in a little hot water for calling Disney, the company who bought it, “white slavers.” I got the joke because I recalled the even darker description a friend of mine who worked at Disney said some company insiders used: Mousewitz. That Disney […]

In the midst of plowing through almost 300 accident reports for my research on ELTs, I took a break to actually look at a couple of installations in real airplanes. One word came to mind: ridiculous. Actually, maybe two words: Half-assed. This is my general reaction to the requirement for ELTs in civil aircraft and […]

Just about everyone wants to be good at his or her job and to do it well, I think. Certainly there are some external rewards generally associated with that in terms of advancement and pay increases but the fundamental sense of self-worth and satisfaction is enough to keep most people showing up and doing a […]

If you key your transmitter on short final and say, “wind check,” Tower Alexa replies with cheerful wind direction and speed. Try that at a non-towered airport, and a CTAF lurker might snarl, “Check the windsock yourself!” Rude perhaps, but the jerk makes a point, because as Dylan Thomas never said, “You don’t need a […]

In 1993, two businessmen named William Walts and George Richardson proposed to launch a new airline called Smokers Express. It was to be based in Florida. It may be helpful to recall that smoking was banned on U.S. airlines in 1990. I had to look this up, by the way. I thought it was much […]

Finishing off a series of firsts Sunday, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the first splashdown in the Gulf and the first anywhere in more than 45 years. (Remember the mission? It was the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975.) This was officially a demonstration mission for final proving […]

The informal definition of “genius” is the ability to maintain two irrational thoughts without getting caught compromising sanity. Most pilots qualify at the Mensa level. Example: Many of us can barely afford owning an aircraft, let alone a building in which to house it, but the enterprising pilot can rationalize either, often both. This realization […]