At EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, Sonex Aircraft pulled back the curtain on its research and development department, called the Hornet’s Nest, and unveiled three projects it’s been working on for the past handful of years. One of them the E-Flight Power System, was covered in a previous post (Old Fashioned Focus Sustains Sonex), but there were [...]

In situations of information overload it’s easy to overlook or forget important things as the mind struggles to focus and make sense of it all. In the air, pilots rely on checklists and standardized procedures, and on the ground, as a reporter I rely on my notebook, a paper brain, if you will. After any [...]

In situations of information overload it’s easy to overlook or forget important things as the mind struggles to focus and make sense of it all. In the air, pilots rely on checklists and standardized procedures, and on the ground, as a reporter I rely on my notebook, a paper brain, if you will. After any [...]

In life, everyone makes mistakes. Most of the time, that’s really a good thing though because it offers us a unique path to become better at what we do. Being human though, admitting we screwed something up is not always easy, it’s downright embarrassing in fact. In government, admitting someone said or did something wrong [...]

Every industry effort to increase the pilot population, from Learn-to-Fly and Be-A-Pilot to the upcoming International Learn to Fly Day, has the same weak link that keeps a program from reaching its full potential: the flight schools, and their instructors, that must make the sale. Before condemning CFIs for letting the aviation industry down, consider [...]

Although the people at Fox News have always been very nice to me when they call and ask for my technical expertise on aviation matters, I must admit I do sometimes dread their calls. That’s because their phone calls usually means something bad has happened, as it did when they rang me last weekend about [...]

In aviation journalism one never knows with any certainty what topics will capture — and keep — the readers’ attention. During EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2008 I wrote about Powerplant Development’s Gemini diesel engine (Gemini Diesel Engine Attracts Industry’s Eye), with an update in January 2009 (Gemini Engine Moving Toward Production). Because readers are still discussing [...]

FAA’s new administrator for the past 70 days, Randy Babbitt, last week spoke about regional airline safety centered around fallout from the crash of Colgan 3407. The audience in Washington was receptive, helped in part by the fact that they were all were members of the Air Line Pilots Association where Babbitt was once president. [...]

Qualified professionals to operate the world’s fleet of new, high-technology aircraft are more necessary than ever before, despite a growing proliferation of UAVs. Unfortunately, airline management and their pilots are not always on the same page when it comes to who should do what and for how much money. Thanks to a loyal Jetwhine reader, [...]

Ensuring aviation’s future by encouraging more people to fly has been attempted by many programs in the past. Despite their good intentions, their collective results are ultimately measured by the ever shrinking pilot population. But several events at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh are chipping away at my skepticism. They are tangible, visible  signs that the necessary [...]