AVweb Insider

Every aviation journalist on and above the third rock from the sun has written, possibly more than once, about the “beauty of flight.” The subject of these evergreen columns changes occasionally, with titles like “The Magic of Flight” or “The Dream of Flight,” but they are all basically the same. Magic, beauty, and dreams all […]

I’m not big on “event roundup” analysis pieces so I was determined to avoid that pointless escape for opinion writers to which we all succumb at times. Nope, I was going to find the news from this AirVenture and blow it wide open for all to see. Of course, the topic was going to be […]

A pilot’s business is with the wind, and with the stars, with night, with sand, with the sea. He strives to outwit the forces of nature. He stares with expectancy for the coming of the dawn the way a gardener awaits the coming of spring. He looks forward to port as a promised land, and […]

Well, the votes are in and in a perfectly democratic world we’d be turning off comments, saving me a ton of work and moving on in an essentially one-way world where mine is the only opinion that can be expressed. That’s just dumb. The irony is not lost on me that by ignoring the majority […]

Last weekend, I fulfilled the role of an “antique squared.” This is when an antique is found to be flying an antique. Slipping the surlies of my home airport, I ventured out with my mighty 1946 Cessna 140 to a local EAA meeting in another town. A lot was going on there, including the ubiquitous […]

On the surface it looks like a classic conservative move, ostensibly putting bureaucracy in its place and giving business the ability to challenge government when it gets in the way. But critics of the Supreme Court’s decision last Friday to quash the so-called Chevron Deference say the move will create a logjam that will bog […]

My lone act of civil disobedience as a teenager in the 1970s (there were other instances of just plain disobedience) was to walk in a pack of hundreds of other jean-jacketed and bell-bottomed youths from our high school to the local courthouse to express our displeasure at the impending nuclear test at Amchitka Island. There […]

Sometimes, the activities on the ramp at my home airport resemble the movie “Idiocracy” more than a functional place for aircraft operations. I am not immune to stupidity, missed cues, gaffes, faux pas, and having my head up and locked. Some of the goofy things I have done in and around airplanes would astound and […]

Gewurztraminer is an interesting grape that most people think is German but actually originated in northern Italy. For those who have not had the pleasure, it’s an intensely fruity white with a floral nose and pronounced lychee and maybe a little peach or nectarine on the palate. I happen to love it so when we […]

“From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the flight, Good Lord deliver us.” With apologies to Robert Burns. Surf’s Up! My flying partner last week was Jim, a longtime pilot, friend and Piper Aztec owner. He was giggling because we hit a bit of turbulence that was harsh enough […]