According to the US Department of Transportation, the US and its territories have more than 19,000 airport, heliports, seaplane bases, and other landing facilities. That’s a lot of aviation. Or at least it’s a lot of potential aviation. [Read more...]
Respect for the seldom celebrated man
January 9, 2013 by 8 Comments
The odds are good you’ve never heard of Lon Cooper. There’s no reason you would have, really. But you should have. We all should have. At least we should have if life is fair, which it is not.
To the Expo we will go
January 3, 2013 by 8 Comments
Two weeks from now the US Sport Aviation Expo will be kicking off in Sebring, Florida. Unlike most aviation gatherings, the Expo is not a traditional airshow or fly-in.
Hope for the new year
January 1, 2013 by 4 Comments
I recently had the good fortune to sit around a rather large table with a group of aviation believers. These are people who know aviation, have faith in it, and understand its importance to the economy of our nation and the world. They are also aware of the tremendous educational benefits aviation provides to its participants. Whether you’re young, middle-aged, or silver-haired, aviation has something to share that can enrich your life.
Golden opportunities and bitter pills
December 19, 2012 by 4 Comments
Participating in politics is, in essence, an exercise in dealing with people. The goal is to establish a method of governing or providing management services. But in the end it all comes down to developing and utilizing your ability to talk to, listen to, and work with a staggeringly diverse group of people.
Like most businessmen, I was involved in politics of a sort long before I held political office. [Read more...]
Flying the Curtiss Pusher
December 11, 2012 by 1 Comment
The twin airfoil canard out front looks like a box kite, one of the prominent building materials is bamboo, and there was never a Pilot’s Operating Handbook of any kind produced for the airplane. However, when Kermit Weeks lines the Curtiss Pusher up on a 5,000-foot grass strip to take his first hop, heads turn and attention is being paid. It’s not every day you see an airplane from the earliest days of powered flight take to the air.
The airplane arrived at its new home at Fantasy of Flight in central Florida just recently to join Weeks’ ever-growing aircraft collection. Weeks and his crew of top-flight mechanics wasted little time assembling it and getting it ready to fly.
Inherently international
December 5, 2012 by 1 Comment
It started with Louis Bleriot in 1909. Bleriot, who was essentially an engineer and an auto parts manufacturer, had been interested in aviation for nearly a decade. His fascination with flight nagged at him until he designed his own airplane, built it, and climbed into the pilot’s seat. Of course he didn’t do all this work personally. But he was a major player in the early days of aviation, and so we owe him a great debt of gratitude for several of his accomplishments. Louis was a trailblazer, as we all can be, given the opportunity and the drive.
The potential of potential
November 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Believe it or not, even the most complex things can ultimately be broken down to a remarkably simple origin. Take your house, for example. While it may seem somewhat ordinary to you, a person who lived in an earlier time would be fascinated by the almost magical qualities of the amenities and gadgets you live with so casually.
It’s true. Imagine for a moment that you could invite a great thinker, tinkerer, and inventor like Benjamin Franklin into your home. You wouldn’t even have to clean the place up to impress him.
General aviation is awesome
November 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Hurricane Sandy made a mess of the northeast last week. More than 20 states were lambasted by wind and rain, while snow piled up in West Virginia. From Georgia to Maine, weather that nobody was happy to see came their way anyhow. There will be more to come, too. There always is. It comes year after year. Somebody finds themselves in the crosshairs. It’s just a matter of time before some meteorological mayhem finds you. Rest assured, your turn will come.
In the aftermath of these storms, floods, mudslides, wildfires, earthquakes, or any other natural calamity that might befall some corner of the world, my television screen becomes rich with aerial photography showing us just how bad the damage really is. Seeing it from the ground is bad enough, but seeing it from the air – well now we have scope and context. The emotional argument is much more powerful given aerial photography. So naturally, photographers from all sorts of media outlets launch to the skies as soon as possible after a natural disaster occurs. It’s news, after all.
What few who view those shots ever think of is, “How did they get that video from above the rim of the volcano?” Last week as we saw images of the Jersey shore in disarray, how many people watching stopped to think, “Thank goodness general aviation is healthy enough to give us the opportunity to get up in the air quickly and see the damage from a better vantage point?”
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