Empty Charter Jets Going Everywhere
Realizing that I wouldn’t be able to attend the annual Air Charter Safety Foundation’s Safety Symposium (ACSF) in Washington last week got me thinking about how little publiscize charter jets at a...
View ArticleCash for Towers: You Can help
Still Time to Save Some Towers — Straight off the massive printing presses at the General Aviation Airport Coalition in Washington comes late word that a deal is in the works to pull some cash from one...
View ArticleSee and Avoid: Airplanes and Partisan Politics
Since the FAA issued the list of contract towers it will close to satisfy the self-inflicted sequester, I’ve been reading a lot of wailing and gnashing and incredulous screeds of how could they? Common...
View ArticleDragonfly Vision & Hungry Midair Meetings
Like many aviators I appreciate anything that flies whether it’s a manmade machine or product of natural selection. Among insect aeronauts the dragonfly is my favorite. Let’s face it, who wouldn’t envy...
View ArticleInstructor Academy Gives Beech a Future
The recent announcement that the American Bonanza Society and its ABS Air Safety Foundation had established the ABS Flight Instructor Academy was not only good news, it was a surprise. For some reason...
View ArticleSometimes Saying No is Just Plane Stupid
Looking back on the decade of my life I spent working at FAA I remember one thing for certain. When someone at the agency told me “No,” the reasons were seldom clear. “No,” might have meant something...
View ArticleMonday Morning Surprise at Flight Schools
Wandering around Addison Airport, a busy Dallas-area reliever, one Monday morning in late April, I dropped in, unannounced, at the airport’s four flight schools. Given the day and hour, I assumed they...
View ArticleDOT Secretary: Out with the Old and in with … the Old
After we recorded this week’s episode of the Airplane Geeks Show, I decided to turn over a new leaf and stop whining about people like the new DOT Secretary. To be honest, I had a little motivational...
View ArticleAircraft Development Awaits Disruptive Tech
Catching up on the news after a two-week vacation that was, like my last two week respite in 1975, totally disconnected from the wider world, on May 5 The New York Times reported that there are new...
View ArticleAirplane Geeks Coming to Udvar-Hazy
Just about the time you thought you’d have a Saturday free to kick back and goof off comes word that The Airplane Geeks will again be a part of the Air & Space Museum’s Become a Pilot Day on June...
View ArticleMake & Read Pilot/IFR Training Comments
With just 130 or so comments received by the May 24 deadline, I guess the FAA felt it didn’t have enough flight training comments on its Draft Airman Certification Standards that its Airman Testing...
View ArticleWith Air Show ATC Fees, the FAA is Following the Airlines’ Lead
Searching for a scintilla of logic behind the FAA’s ATC fees for the air traffic control services it provides at fly-ins, I realized that the roughly $500,000 bill it sent EAA AirVenture Oshkosh was,...
View ArticleFair Taxation Instead of Aviation User Fees
Inadequate revenue from aviation taxes on fuel and tickets, which fund the U.S. aviation infrastructure and the agency that regulates it, is how some in the FAA justify their desire for user fees to...
View ArticleBloggers Play a Significant Role in Aviation Media
Every aviation blogger I’ve ever met is certain they possess a magic grasp on their own little corner of the industry, which is of course why we all do what we do. Some bloggers are just better writers...
View ArticleAirVenture: Airplane Geeks Invade Oshkosh
When people call me a “Geek” these days, I accept it as a term of endearment, especially with the advent of social media. In fact, that’s why our radio show’s called The Airplane Geeks. It’s actually...
View ArticleTwo Professional Pilots … Missing
Two Turkish airline pilots have gone missing. The aircraft they flew to Beirut on August 9 is just fine, as is their cabin crew, but these two men simply vanished into thin air … and almost no one is...
View ArticleToday is Labor Day
Having been deeply involved with two major unions in my life … the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Association (PATCO) and finally for a short while, the...
View ArticleFriends, Forecasts & the Future of Aviation
Most of my friends and acquaintances are, in some way or another, involved with aviation. Talking with them over the past months, the future of aviation seems to be the discourse destination of choice....
View ArticleAirlines, Lost Bags and Customer Service … Oh My!
“Airlines lose bags sometimes. Get over it, ” a guy told me. Yeah … right. That nice warm fuzzy reality check didn’t work for me a few months ago when Southwest Airlines lost my daughter’s bag between...
View ArticleHappy Birthday Jetwhine
Getting old isn’t really so bad, is it? Sure a few more lines and sags stare back at you every morning in the mirror, but the upside to aging is wisdom. Jetwhine’s 7th birthday is just around the...
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