How often are we told that aviation fuels are superior to other fuels as they must meet one common, exacting worldwide standard, are produced with more stringent controls, are transported, stored, filtered and dispensed from dedicated equipment? Given these tough requirements, one would expect contamination or misfueling to be near impossible, yet it does happen. Here […]
Opinion
Rectifying past mistakes
Everything is not necessarily as it seems. That’s true in political endeavors more often than we might want to believe. A case of mistaken assumptions was recently uncovered at my home airport. Perhaps you will find the story beneficial to you and your attempts to positively affect the management of your local airport. The airport […]
NATCA warns against sequestration
WASHINGTON, D.C. — General aviation will feel the heavy impact of the mandated 8.2% sequestration funding cut for the FAA if Congress doesn’t act to avert the across-the-board cuts. A report from National Air Traffic Control Association (NATCA) says the cut would cause furloughing between 2,000 and 2,200 air traffic controllers. This is about 12% […]
Russian ‘Beetle’ takes off
News from Russian sport aircraft producers is rare. Though the old USSR had a vast military aircraft complex, that hasn’t translated to recreation aircraft the way it did in the formerly Soviet Czech Republic, where many of our LSA originate. However, that doesn’t mean efforts are absent. We’ve seen some uptake of LSA (like Pipistrel) […]
Long, winding approval tale — SLSA #128
A most remarkable thing happened recently. I refer to a recent approval of a brand new Special LSA. Why is that noteworthy, especially as it is #128 on our SLSA List? Everyone in the business of LSA and most other alert readers have followed the long, winding, still-evolving path of FAA approvals in the fall […]
Ask Paul: What are these aluminum specks?
Q: I lost the left mag on my O-540. When I took it apart, I found four aluminum specks in the top oil screen. I pulled the rear housing off and found the aluminum gear still in the engine. I sent it off for repairs to Tulsa, where they installed a new oil pump, shaft, […]
Tecnam offers bargain-priced Echo Classic Light
Major Italian producer Tecnam has launched the P92 Classic Light microlight. This is the seventh-generation model in Tecnam P92 range of airplanes, which this year celebrated 20 years of production. The company reports that over two decades of service, “P92’s worldwide fleet now stands at nearly 2,000 aircraft with 200,000 flown hours. The P92 Classic […]
NY SavOn stores go ethanol-free
Consumers in upstate New York received good news this week that ethanol-free fuel is now available in a few more locations. According to this article in Convenience Store News, the SavOn chain of C-stores in the Oneida area now offers E0: “At SavOn, we are always looking for ways to meet the needs of our […]
Happy Birthday, ASTM
The group of folks, mostly volunteers, who have written the ASTM standards used to “certify” Light-Sport Aircraft celebrated their 10th anniversary in Atlanta at the end of October. The people who did, do, and will labor to make these industry-devised standards are woefully under appreciated yet they have achieved so much in a short 10 […]