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The recent passing of triple-ace Bud Anderson at the well-earned age of 102 stirred up some happy memories along with the inevitable twinge of sadness. I met Bud on several occasions (the accompanying selfie was taken at AirVenture’s Fightertown in the Warbird area), but we seldom had the opportunity for more than a few pleasantries. […]

As the former owner of a vintage V-tail Bonanza, I always pay attention when one of them crashes. Last week’s tragedy in Tennessee drew particularly wide interest for two reasons. It involved an in-flight breakup, and the pilot was a doctor. Both invoke traditional assumptions about V-tails, and even vintage Bonanza lovers like me acknowledge […]

Aviation is the Caribbean of the 1700s, and you are fish bait. Savvy? Our local flying club was having its yearly “Talk Like a Pilot Day” cookout at their hangar, and I was invited to give the keynote address. I was among a few dozen people who had spent their day talking like a pilot […]

In all the teeth-gnashing about the rocky road to a universal unleaded aviation gasoline, there’s a background theme that I’ve been trying to get across that tends to be drowned out by the technical issues and politics of the issue. The dizzyingly complex details of gasoline chemistry and the puzzling political battle over the dark […]

Southwest Airlines sadly announced the passing on May 8 of Colleen C. Barrett, one of the most prominent and beloved family members of the airline. After starting as the legal secretary of founder Herb Kelleher, Colleen became the first corporate secretary and advanced all the way to president of the airline earning devotion, accolades and […]

It was a cool morning at the airport, and I had just exited the FBO lounge to walk onto the ramp. My left hand held the keys to my hangar’s door, and my right hand cradled a three-quarter-full cup of airport coffee—the communion drink of drowsy pilots. There is a certain squint that experienced pilots […]

The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has laid all its cards on the table. We now know why it thinks General Aviation Modifications Inc.’s G100UL unleaded fuel is clearly considered an outlier in the quest for a new drop-in replacement for 100LL even though it has been approved by the FAA via a universal STC […]

Kermit found me morose. I was sitting in my lounge chair in my home office, staring dolefully at my “I love me” wall. Most general aviation and military pilots have an “I love me” wall or shelf in their homes. It is a place to hang all those squadron pictures, awards, plaques, old epaulets, retirement […]

It was good to be back in Lakeland for Sun ‘n Fun and even better to have been there for the 75-degree sunny days rather than the almost-annual deluge that showed up later in the week. As shows go, it was slow for news, but news certainly wasn’t absent. Moreover, it showed that the spirit […]

I listen to a lot of ATC tapes and the latest was about the flap damage on the Southwest flight at Denver Sunday morning. When pieces fall off an airplane in flight it’s a flat-out, hair-on-fire emergency. Neither the controllers nor the pilots know for sure what has been damaged and even though decisions are […]