AOPA's monthly magazine offers aviation articles on technique, aircraft, avionics, advocacy efforts, and more for veteran pilots and aviation enthusiasts alike.
The qualities of an ideal trainer are in direct conflict with those of an adventure airplane. A trainer must be easy to fly, mechanically simple, and economical. An adventure airplane should fly precisely, carry bulky loads, and operate from short and rough airfields. Any aircraft that excels in one area can’t be expected to thrive in the other—or can it?
It’s an unseasonably warm day in early November at New Garden Flying Field outside Philadelphia. The leaves are turning yellow and red but still hanging tight to the trees, and the sky is a deep, welcoming blue. It’s a perfect day for Fairchild flying.
Ted DuPuis had landed the Cessna 414 at Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC) in Kansas City, Missouri, and was taxiing to his hangar when he noticed that a cylinder on the left engine wasn’t firing correctly. He shut down and put away the airplane, and then he called his maintenance shop to see if they could hustle the 414 in for a look. Sure enough, the number four cylinder on the left engine needed to be replaced.
Despite a growing chorus of opposition both in Congress and among nearly 200 general aviation industry groups, consumer groups, unions, small airports, state aviation departments, and local elected officials—not to mention the $100 billion price tag—the president’s fiscal year 2019 budget proposal calls for removing air traffic control operations from the FAA.
Life can be a game of luck. Nick Micskey’s luck started on his first flying job. He had joined the Marines, but it was late in the war, and on the way to Vietnam, his unit was pulled off the airplane in Okinawa, sat down in a room, and everyone was given one of two sets of orders. Half said “forward.” Micskey’s said “back.”
