Drew Steketee was president of BE A PILOT, senior vp-communications for AOPA and executive director of the Partnership for Improved Air Travel. He also headed PR and media relations for Beech, GAMA and the Airport Operators Council International.

Again, consumer electronics will be king this holiday shopping season, driven by vast leaps in features and capabilities at ever-decreasing cost. Priced flat-screen TVs lately? No wonder the most widespread progress in General Aviation after 1980 was in avionics.

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Drew Steketee was president of BE A PILOT, senior vp-communications for AOPA and executive director of the Partnership for Improved Air Travel. He also headed PR and media relations for Beech, GAMA and the Airport Operators Council International.

On the fifth anniversary of contractor-operated FAA Flight Service, many commented on either program success or loss of “local knowledge” at the three super-centers covering the continent. For me, it turns out Flight Service is still close by — right next to my local Home Depot.

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Drew Steketee was president of BE A PILOT, senior vp-communications for AOPA and executive director of the Partnership for Improved Air Travel. He also headed PR and media relations for Beech, GAMA and the Airport Operators Council International.

More than 10 years ago, I asked AOPA members to vote for their “Favorite Fly-Outs.” These would be those special places where flying made the most sense, the fun but hard-to-reach destinations that justify learning to fly. The winner: Cedar Key, Florida.

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Drew Steketee was president of BE A PILOT, senior vp-communications for AOPA and executive director of the Partnership for Improved Air Travel. He also headed PR and media relations for Beech, GAMA and the Airport Operators Council International.

In rural southern New Jersey, GA seems to be going one way and high-end sports car racing another. Interestingly, they both do it at the airport.

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Drew Steketee was president of BE A PILOT, senior vp-communications for AOPA and executive director of the Partnership for Improved Air Travel. He also headed PR and media relations for Beech, GAMA and the Airport Operators Council International.

TA-DA! Here it is. In the center ring, ladies and gentlemen, the world’s most famous Cessna 150, which made headlines a few years ago when it blew through the Washington, D.C., ADIZ and the press had a field day.

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Drew Steketee was president of BE A PILOT, senior vp-communications for AOPA and executive director of the Partnership for Improved Air Travel. He also headed PR and media relations for Beech, GAMA and the Airport Operators Council International.

In August, Washington was abuzz over an unmanned Northrup Grumman Firescout helicopter that escaped Navy test controllers and headed towards D.C. at 2,000 feet. With all the hubbub here every time a C-150 busts the big post-Sept. 11 ADIZ, GA pilots would have enjoyed seeing the military this time on the 6 p.m. news, spread-eagle on the tarmac.

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As pilots now of a “certain” age, we look back on airports that were part of our lives.  This is the second post in a series of three. There’s nowhere like Van Sant Airfield in Pennsylvania’s historic Bucks County. Fifty miles north and decades away from big-city Philadelphia, Van Sant salves my soul with old airplanes, grass runways, classy surroundings and Colonial history. Today’s realities haven’t over-flown Van Sant, however.

Things got quieter in recent years. Van Sant family heirs decided to sell. In 2003, the county stepped in with $3 million to preserve 9N1 as the Bucks County Aeronautical Park. Air operations were saved, while development-threatened land was spared. Neighbors (both the noise- and the growth-sensitive), Van Sant heirs and fliers alike were satisfied.

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As pilots now of a “certain” age, we look back on airports that were part of our lives. This is the third of a three-part series.

“Recession? What recession?” So said Mike Gilbert, Gold Seal CFI for Aviation Adventures at Leesburg Municipal (excuse me, Executive) Airport. Yep, they changed the name and, perhaps, for good reason. “JYO” is a successful non-towered GA airport in affluent, fast-growing Loudoun County, Virginia, 35 miles northwest of the nation’s capital. [Read more...]

As pilots of a “certain” age, we look back on airports that were part of our lives. This series starts with three. My first was a little grass field in New Jersey. Twin Pine was down home, midway between the state capital and Princeton, the college town. I started as line boy there in ’65. Ten hours of runway mowing got me one hour dual in a ‘46 Taylorcraft, just like a thousand other line boys and future pilots.

It was great: 2,600 feet of grass flanked by broken-down hangars. Even more colorful was the owner’s trove of junk planes and military surplus. A Culver Cadet was always to be rebuilt “this winter.” A Korean War H-5 helicopter appeared one day (just like Mickey Rooney’s egg-beater in “Bridges at Toko-Ri.”) What was THAT for? Decades later I did a video there for BE A PILOT, threatening that if we don’t do more to promote flying, all of GA will look like this! That day, owner Bill Weisner and his cronies were still sitting around a ramshackle office — and the Korean War H-5 was still outside, untouched for 36 years.

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