Airports Posts

If my homebuilding buddies are a typical sample of the amateur-built airplane community, there’s a lot of confusion about what led to the new policy the FAA has proposed. (See Homebuilt Aircraft: How Much is More than Half?) My friends are so…

To most pilots who fly over it, Liberty Landing Airport (4MO4) isn’t anything special. On the sectional chart it’s just another private airport, an empty circle around an R that stands for restricted about 20 nm east, southeast of Kansas…

It’s always bugged me that I need two sectional charts–Green Bay and Chicago–to get from my home in OSH to my family growing-up grounds west of the commercial Class B airspace plug stuck in the ground at ORD.It’s more than …

During the late 1990s I participated in the FAA Pilot Proficiency Award Program. Each year, in return for attending one safety seminar and logging three hours with an instructor (one each for airwork, patternwork, and hoodwork) I met the biennial fl…

If time is short, never ask Dick and Sharon Starks what they’ve been up to lately. Both pilots, these retired schoolteachers have a full flying life that any pilot would envy.  Anxious to see Sharon’s new airplane, a Morane Model L para…

I remember the morning of August 3, 1981 vividly as I turned on the TV to find news stories of air traffic controller members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization-PATCO-marching with picket signs at the base of the tower at Chica…

From AirVenture 2008 – As promised in a recent post (Backyard Flying: Fun & Cheap), I ambled down to the lightplane area at the south end of the EAA AirVenture site to try on Valley Engineering’s Backyard Flyer. It fit!To most peop…

From AirVenture 2008 – If I say that most CFIs make lousy business people, I’m unlikely to offend too many people … some for sure, just not too many I’ll wager. The reason is simple. Most CFIs do make lousy business people be…

From AirVenture 2008 – Five minutes before the blog session began at AirVenture yesterday, I was wondering if the whole thing had been such a good idea. There were five people in the room. Maybe it was too soon to talk social media.Then, as t…

From AirVenture 2008 – There’s nothing quite like meeting up with a bunch of pilot buddies on a Saturday morning for a great breakfast. The social aspect of flying, in fact, is one of the best ways for newer pilots to learn from more exp…

Anyone who follows the happenings of the FAA and air traffic control knows John Carr. He spent more than a couple of years at the helm of NATCA, the controller’s union, and was Pat Forrey’s predecessor. I had the pleasure of interviewing…

And just when you think almost no one notices anything you write comes a great article like this one from FlightGlobal’s Runway Girl, Mary Kirby.  She interviewed me a few days ago when she realized she wouldn’t be able to make it…

It doesn’t seem possible that it’s been nearly a year in the making, but it has. When I suggested a get together for aviation bloggers last fall I never thought I’d see much interest. But was I wrong. By Thanksgiving I’d had …

You have to love this one. And this has nothing to do with FAA!London’s Times Online and Plane Stupid are spreading the story about how the BAA apparently supported its case for a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport – the b…

Am I the last airman in America to totally ignore the free and invaluable gift that is FAAST, the FAA Safety Team at www.FAASafety.gov? Sometime during the past two years I gave the FAA my email address. When and how doesn’t matter. WhatR…

Every so often Jetwhine is lucky enough to unexpectedly receive an important work of prose from another professional mind. Today we have one from Frank Froman, a St. Louis psychologist, a man with a secret dream, but a man who also knows how to solv…

Talking to friends, flight schools, and FBOs it is clear that I’m not the only one who isn’t flying as much as I used to. With avgas going for roughly $6 a gallon or more, depending where you live, direct operating costs are climbing fa…

Those of us who have either flown business airplanes or have been lucky enough to travel in the back – a few of us qualify for both – are light years ahead of the people we are still trying to convince about the value of personal air tra…

Clever and creative are not terms people use much when they speak about the airline industry, except for a few of the “Gen Xer airlines” as I call the Low Cost Carriers because they really seem to get it. I was listening to an engaging …

Close on the heels of this 4th of July comes the realization that the most heated presidential election we will probably see in our life times is really upon us. The relentless drum-beat from both nominees is that this nation is in serious need of s…

It’s been awhile since I’ve attended an FAA safety seminar. With good intentions I read all e-mail invitations FAASafety.gov sends, but other weekend responsibilities too often take precedence. A tailwheel clinic, on the other hand, is m…

As a marketing-communications guy, JD Power and Associates recent labeling of Continental Airlines as one of the best in the nation for overall customer satisfaction, as well as the Best U.S. Airline award CAL also grabbed from the Official Airline …

Stand with me brothers and sisters of the air and remember June 11, 2008. On this day upstart Icon Aircraft left the cloistered alcove where the choir of aviators sings. It took the public pulpit, inhaled deeply, and sang in pure notes to the congre…

I walked out in the alley on Saturday near my home just north of Chicago and was surprised to see a bunch of kids all staring up at the azure-blue sky to the north. “Hey guys. What’s going on?” I asked. One small boy said nothing a…