AOPA's monthly magazine offers aviation articles on technique, aircraft, avionics, advocacy efforts, and more for veteran pilots and aviation enthusiasts alike.
Like most group flying courses, the Mountain Flying course at Glide Omarama began with students introducing themselves: Where and what we fly and describing our flying experience. And like most such exercises, it naturally included some hangar flying. Marty Abbott’s story won hands down.
Sometimes just the right combination of factors comes together to create a really great airplane, and that may be the case with the four-place Sling 4 from The Airplane Factory, headquartered in South Africa.
One of the most iconic airplanes to fall out of production, but certainly not out of favor, is the Douglas DC–3. Every major airline in the world used the “Gooney Bird.” It’s been reported that by 1939, an astounding 90 percent of the world’s airline passengers flew in DC–3s. These rugged twin-engine taildraggers continued in widespread passenger service into the 1960s, and some still haul passengers today. Most DC–3s went into cargo hauling after retirement from the airlines, while others became crop sprayers or were employed in mosquito control or other less-glamorous duties. No other transport vehicle has had as long and successful a career as the DC–3, and it’s still going.
It’s 9:15 a.m. on Wednesday and Katie Pribyl is giving everyone in the room high-fives. The Sedona Flying Club in Sedona, Arizona, has begun operations with a leased Piper Warrior, making it the twentieth club AOPA has helped start this year. It’s the first week of October and with this latest club the year’s goal can be checked off as completed.
When angle of attack increases beyond its critical angle, a stall follows. And bad stuff often ensues. Before the stall, one feels buffeting—a harbinger of wicked things to come.
There’s a consensus that much of the flight training system is broken, and has been for decades. It takes too long, costs too much, and the results are “irregular”—to put it charitably. The national average completion rate for private pilot certificates is about 20 percent.
Authenticity alert! Neither Dean Koontz, Ken Follett, John Grisham, nor J.K. Rowling were involved in crafting this article. Why not? Because what follows isn’t fiction, although it is hard to believe.
It is not unusual for pilots to ask, “What is your favorite airplane?” This is an impossible question to answer, because it depends on my mood and my mission. Recently, though, someone posed a similar question—but with a twist: “What is your most memorable flight?” This, too, is difficult to answer because a lifetime aloft has resulted in so many memorable experiences. Like you, it probably is easier to list highlights, each having something do with special people, airplanes, or places.
Every once in a while, a loud banging or whirring down on the factory floor would cause 15-year-old me to snap fully awake in the drab, steam-heated conference room. Elsewhere in the building, the afternoon shift was building railroad cars. As the evening wore on, the fluorescent tubes in the ceiling flickered more and more, seemingly in sync with my eyelids. The tubes were the most advanced piece of technology in the room, their hum my lullaby.
It goes without saying that I’m a big believer in all things general aviation—the value, the fun, the adventure, the freedom. These are pleasures I wish everyone could experience.
When my husband, Randy, and I became engaged last year, we knew the typical wedding was not what we wanted. We are general aviation pilots; we wanted to tie our passion for aviation into our wedding. The plan was to launch from our home base in Hastings, Michigan; intercept Route 66 in central Illinois; and follow the highway southwest, making several stops along the way. Our destination was Sedona, Arizona, where we would be married.
In much of North America, the AirCam is an airplane for two seasons. Its open-air nature exposes pilot and passenger to the elements—and cold, rain, or even snow can make winter flying hurt, even when wearing specialized clothing.
Many parts of an aging airplane can be refreshed with components that provide benefits ranging from cosmetic to utilitarian, from reducing drag to improving performance.
The Globe, later Temco, Swift is literally a rare bird. There are few competitors like it; there are no two alike. Over the years, owners have changed the engine and propeller, the canopy, filled in the slots at the front of the wing, and changed the stick. You won’t be left without support if you buy one of the 600 registered—you’ll be well taken care of. There is a type club, the Swift Museum Foundation, that has the type certificate, tooling, and provides parts, and there are owners willing to help. A national fly-in at Athens, Tennessee, has forums on maintenance. It is estimated by some owners that there are no more than six 85-horsepower stock Swifts out there.
How do you describe to a pilot how far down a runway he could slide when the surface is covered in snow or ice? Until now that observation has been highly subjective, but a 10-year analysis by a team of aircraft manufacturers, airport managers, and the FAA has come up with a consistent way of communicating slipperiness through new field conditions (FICON) notices to airmen (notam) rules.
AOPA set a new fly-in attendance record October 1, with more than 6,300 people coming to the fourth and final 2016 AOPA Fly-In, which was held at Ernest A. Love Field in Prescott, Arizona. The Prescott Fly-In pushed cumulative attendance above 40,000 for the 16 regional fly-ins that AOPA has held since 2014.
Garmin’s new VIRB Ultra 30 is a 4K action camera that’s built to exploit market leader GoPro’s weaknesses: confusing buttonology; short battery life; and complex, hard-to-read menus.
When my husband, Randy, and I became engaged last year, we knew the typical wedding was not what we wanted. We are general aviation pilots; we wanted to tie our passion for aviation into our wedding. The plan was to launch from our home base in Hastings, Michigan; intercept Route 66 in central Illinois; and follow the highway southwest, making several stops along the way. Our destination was Sedona, Arizona, where we would be married.
Of the 57 new flying clubs eligible for AOPA’s Flying Club 150 Giveaway, the application from the Nate Abel Flying Club stood out. AOPA President Mark Baker delivered the good news in a Skype conversation with the club’s officers arranged to tell them their Reimagined Cessna 150 is on the way.