AVweb Insider

When I went through basic training, there was a sign somewhere in camp that said, “The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.” One could internalize this, I suppose, and pretend that if you tried real hard and spent that extra five minutes shining your brass buckle, you’d somehow escape getting […]

A recent optometrist exam confirmed that my vision only focuses with any clarity in the rearview mirror, which may explain why I was a history major and incessantly write about the past. I couldn’t see the next new thing coming down the glideslope if it had my name on its spinner. Early to dismiss GPS […]

Around the virtual conference table in the editorial offices, no declarative statement induces more heartburn than this: We need to look at apps. To get the reflux rising in the throat, add: again. That’s because compared to evaluating aviation apps, Alice’s rabbit hole is a pleasant picnic on a warm day. Why? Because almost anyone […]

There are certain questions that you just naturally don’t want to hear. For example, “Is this the last beer?” or “Do you know how fast you were going?” or a variation on that, “Didn’t you hear me tell you not to cross that runway?” I’ve heard the second question in that list more times than […]

There’s a weird disconnect in aviation that is taken for granted but kind of hard to explain in the context of the current state of affairs.  It would be a fairly safe assumption, I think, that most pilots think of themselves as being decisive, independent sorts who can think on their feet. Anyone without those […]

I went skydiving last weekend for the first time in a little over three months. More on that further down the page. First, some comments on how people are handling—or not handling—the risk of flying in the age of COVID-19. I wish I could say I’ve seen and can point to someone, some group, some […]

It’s embarrassing. I’ve been a pilot for over 45 years, learned to fly at a military airport with a control tower, and mumbled through an ATC career that ended in don’t-let-the-TRACON-door-hit-you-in-the-butt-on-the-way-out. Despite that resume, I still fumble when using my own voice, a seemingly innocuous instrument comprised of hot air and virus droplets. As with […]

One word comes to mind to describe SpaceX’s flawless Saturday launch and subsequent docking of the Crew Dragon with the International Space Station: Impressive. I’d add another kicker to that: Desperately needed. In a year that’s not even half over and that has proven uniformly awful so far, an undiluted success lifts the spirits, salves […]

With the excitement building in the aerospace world for the first commercial crew launch (from any country) by SpaceX from the Florida coast, everyone was looking for smoke and fire and a needle-thin rocket rising from the launch pad and into the sky on Wednesday. But that was not to be, as late spring brought […]

I occasionally delight and shock my non-aviation friends with short, expletive-laden descriptions of airplane engines having changed little since VE day. In some ways, they’ve gotten a little worse. “Wait, you mean they have pushrods and carburetors? How can that be true?” It is true, of course, unless you fly one of the new-tech diesels […]