Maintenance

Kermit Weeks always makes a splash at AirVenture but this may be his biggest ever. The serial aircraft collector and owner of Fantasy of Flight Museum in Florida will be part of the crew flying the massive Martin Mars flying boat from Vancouver Island in British Columbia to the seaplane base on Lake Winnebago on […]

Sensenich is well-known for its complete line of wooden aircraft propellers. In this classic AVweb video, we learn how the company does it with a complete factory tour. view on YouTube

We’ve watched the evolution of the Diamond DA40 series with interest. Our first reaction to what would become the Diamond Star was to be less than impressed. We thought the canopy was a marketing ploy that would make emergency egress difficult, and the cabin looked small and uncomfortable. Then we flew it. The canopy provided […]

No one was injured when a rare Second World War-era Lysander made an off-airport landing near Hamilton, Ontario, on Saturday. The aircraft was on a local sightseeing flight. Only the 64-year-old pilot and a 61-year-old British woman were on board when the engine failed. The aircraft, one of 42 warbirds operated by the Canadian Warplane […]

Many moons ago, as a Boy Scout in Montana, we told a story around the campfire about how to catch a raccoon: you’d anchor a clear bottle to the ground and put some crumpled tin foil inside. A passing raccoon (there’s always a raccoon passing by) would be transfixed by the glint of the foil […]

Because of design, certification and insurance costs, the OEM industry is hobbled with a rather arcane system of pricing replacement parts. When it comes to interior plastic parts—like a window molding, hinge cover or a glove box overlay, for example—a couple of dollars’ worth of plastic becomes a $400 part simply because of its unique […]

Icon Aircraft has pushed back customer deliveries until at least 2017 and has announced a major revision of its controversial purchase agreement. In a conference call held with invited aviation media representatives, CEO Kirk Hawkins cited manufacturing difficulties as the reason for the delivery delays. “We have to slow down so we can go fast,” […]

The Cessna 182 series is one of the most popular and prolific all-purpose flying machines in the general aviation fleet. They are dependable, straightforward, and easy to fly. They are traded frequently on the market, and lots of people are looking to buy one at any given time. While the huge run-up in the cost […]

Regardless of whether your aircraft is metal, composite, or tube and fabric, quite a few homebuilts these days use composite fairings. Nowhere is this more true than the engine cowl—it’s just not an easy shape to fabricate out of other materials. Unfortunately, for tightly-cowled installations, heat from proximity to exhaust pipes (or a turbo) can […]

Canadian authorities are investigating an incident that could potentially affect the airworthiness of thousands of Piper Cherokees. Manitoba flight instructor Tom Larkin was on short final with a student when the control column broke off in his hands. “Somewhere below 50 feet as I eased back on the control column to assist the student with […]