sport aviation Posts

If you haven’t heard, the Internet and blogs like JetWhine are killing print journalism. Slowly, community journalists, everyday people with an interest in their community, are becoming our primary source of news. If you doubt this, watch TV news a…

After reviewing thousands of comments about the fed’s proposed policy and procedural changes affecting the 51-percent rule, the Amateur-Built Aviation Rulemaking Committee completed its mission, submitted its final recommendations to the FAA, and c…

The JA Air Center opened its new four-building campus, which covers 150,000 square feet, on December 1, 2008. As the airport’s primary FBO, the company had to add flight services–charter, training, and aircraft rental–to its well known menu of avio…

Manufacturers of light-sport aircraft have not escaped the recession. According to several reports, this segment of the aviation industry has not been hit as hard as the manufacturers of heavier general aviation airplanes and the LSA fleet grew by 3…

Showered daily with foul news about the economy overall–and aviation in particular–I wasn’t looking forward to talking with a dozen avionics shops across the country for a magazine assignment. Hearing bad news first hand would be slightly more pain…

Designing, testing, certifying, and producing a new aircraft engine is never an easy process. A sour economy that sends investors into hiding just makes the process that more challenging. But the three-cylinder, six piston diesel/Jet A  Gemini 100 …

By Rob Mark Is there anything more stressful than knowing you want to buy your budding aviator something, but knowing full well that the economy has taken a toll on your pocketbook? Sure they might love anything you buy them now, but after Christmas…

A good question, posed by Matt Thomas in his comment about New Book Holds Hope for Aviation’s Future. “Do they risk finding other things to do that are perhaps more fun?” he asked on the next line, referring to pilots in general and not the subject…

Aviation has weathered a number of economic storms in its history, most notably the Great Depression and the collapse of the GA boom that followed World War II. How the industry met and survived past challenges unfortunately will not predict aviati…

The only thing that sucks worse than the economy right now is the state of aviation. Mix layoffs with shrinking pilot numbers and the growing list of new regulations and requirements that benefit only bureaucrats, and you have a case of cynicism ab…

Cessna recently lifted the lid on its next generation flight training program. After military and airline training programs have proven the efficacy of scenario-based training for decades, Cessna is finally bringing it to general aviation. Working…

After the last plane took off for home in August, EAA announced it was starting work on a 10-year plan to improve its AirVenture grounds on Wittman Regional Airport. The news release spoke about moving the main gate, new thoroughfares, and improved …

When the urge to fly strikes me, but inadequate weather or funds make the satisfaction of this desire impractical, I often turn to the AOPA Air Safety Foundation Interactive Safety Courses. Spending an hour online isn’t the same as one in the air, …

Cleaning out an old flight bag, in a long unvisited pocket I found a NASA form that must be more than a decade old. I was flying more than I do now, and I always carried the form in case I needed to submit the details of some inadvertent stupid pil…

In no uncertain terms, Toby Kamark and Jeff Gentz see light-sport aircraft as the future of general aviation. It’s time for a new generation to succeed the old, and this change is happening now, they said. Sport pilot is the key to getting people …

When I traveled recently to rural eastern Kansas to write and shoot a profile for Aviation for Women, the magazine of Women In Aviation International, holding the last surviving part of a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 was the last thing I expected to do. But h…

Like most pilots, I dreamed of one day owning an airplane. With the cost of groceries and gas, one son in college and his brother  starting next year, I’d put the dream to bed. Given all the costs, I couldn’t justify it to myself, because I fly for …

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 solid, h…

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 City Intern…

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 the cost: $8.60 each. In…

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 parasol, I learn…

From AirVenture 2008 – Van’s Aircraft is a small company that’s put a big smile on faces who’ve taken to the sky in the company’s line of RVs. The handful of employees also wear big smiles, even after standing in the hot Oshkosh sun all day, because…

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 people that may not …