Touch & Go

I’ve been working pretty consistently in recent days cleaning up our residential airpark directory, Living With Your Plane. With about 600 airparks in the directory, it is a never-ending job to keep the information current. Since most residential airparks are managed by the residents in a homeowners association or something like that, officers and contact […]

“Cessna 123, cleared for takeoff, runway 13L.” Do you really care what the person issuing the instructions is wearing? I don’t. But apparently the FAA does. All across the country air traffic controllers are being disciplined for dress code violations. Some of the male controllers have rebelled by wearing dresses. Given the problems the FAA […]

I don’t want to seem like an alarmist, but the new environmental religion has become a threat to aviation, and the threat is very real. Ten protesters at London’s Biggin Hill were arrested last month while blocking access to private aircraft, which make up most of the traffic at that historic airfield. They were protesting […]

Everyone knows at least one pilot who has “the right stuff.” “These are the people we trust, whom we look up to — and not just for their stick and rudder skills,” says Bill Rhodes, owner of Aerworthy Consulting, who is kicking off a first-of-its-kind study of what makes a pilot a superior pilot. Dubbed […]

Well, I survived one more Oshkosh experience! As I have for just about every year since 1970, I journeyed to Oshkosh for the annual EAA aviation extravaganza the last week of July. As usual, there was a huge crowd of planes, campers and people on hand. I don’t have any sort of count, but let […]

Last summer broken bones grounded me. This summer I am making up for lost time by not only doing as much flying as I can, but also flying as many airplanes from my “wish list” as possible. You already know about one of them – the DC-3 (Living the dream: Our reporter flies a DC-3, […]

Have you ever wondered why the more successful fighter pilots are called aces? It’s an odd story, which begins with a popular Frenchman of pre-World War I vintage. Roland Garros was a Parisian bon vivant who became entranced by flying in 1909, after seeing Alberto Santos-Dumont skimming madly among the city’s chimney pots aboard a […]

OK, I’ll admit it. When I heard country music star Aaron Tippin was going to be in concert at Sun ‘n Fun, I was excited. Not just because I’m a fan, but because I knew I’d get a chance to sit down and interview him. That’s one of the perks of my job. I get […]

If you had any doubts as to whether the FAA was going to mount a full-scale attempt to secure increased general aviation funding for the Next Generation Air Traffic Control system, let me make it very clear: they are in full attack mode. How do I know that? Probably the most obvious reason I came […]