AOPA's monthly magazine offers aviation articles on technique, aircraft, avionics, advocacy efforts, and more for veteran pilots and aviation enthusiasts alike.
Chip Sonn peers from beneath a baseball cap, eyes squinting despite his dark sunglasses. He’s all business as the red-and-white de Havilland Turbine Otter claws its way toward 10,500 feet msl. Above, a sunny sky has given way to bright white clouds. Below, the terrain—where it’s not stark, nearly vertical rock—remains covered in seemingly featureless white snow.
Living on an island sounds like a dream. The sea surrounds you, the vistas are incredible, the pace is slow, and your neighbors are friends. Just one thing could mar that idyllic situation: illness. If your island community has limited medical resources, getting to treatment can be challenging at best—and devastating at worst.
The Howard DGA–15 provides a rare and revealing window into aviation’s golden age. The two-decade span between the world wars was known for rapid technological advancement and wild aviation experimentation. It also produced outsized personalities, entrepreneurial daring, and bold new uses for increasingly capable airplanes that offered previously unattainable speed, range, and luxury.
What do a corporate pilot, flight school owner, and stay-at-home mom all have in common? They are three of the thousands of pilots who have decided to leave the stability of their lives and careers to catch the unprecedented airline hiring wave.
Revocation is the most severe action the faa can take against an airman’s certificates, and it can easily result from a pilot’s mistaken answer when completing the online MedXpress medical application. Pilots who realize—before the FAA does—that an inadvertent mistake was made on the application should consider that, despite the looming threat of legal action and a lack of FAA guidance, these mistakes often can be corrected.
In a June 2015 policy memo, the FAA communicated a pivot to a new compliance philosophy, where its approach to rules enforcement would focus on identifying and fixing the underlying safety concern, and then directing what it called “compliance action.” The policy expressed the FAA’s commitment to a “just culture” with an “expectation of and appreciation for self-disclosure of errors.”
One good reason for being in New York on February 9, 1971, was that I was not home to experience Southern California’s San Fernando Earthquake. I confess that the ground shaking beneath my feet completely unnerves me. Another good reason is that I had just completed the training in New York needed to transition to TWA’s international routes. I had spent the previous seven years flying domestically, and I was eager to wing my way toward more exotic destinations.
Nothing comes close to the enjoyment I get from jumping in my Piper Super Cub on a warm, sunny day. Even better is capping my flight off with a smooth splashdown on a picturesque lake near my hometown. To me, that’s the definition of independence, and what better way to celebrate Independence Day than by exercising our freedom to fly?
AOPA’s Flying Clubs initiative got a boost when Steve Bateman left Nebraska to join the association as director of the initiative. The British-born flier is an enthusiastic pilot, aircraft owner, and former flying club member. And he was anxious to put his experience and background to good use—he suggested to AOPA Flying Clubs Manager Michael Hangartner they start a club, using Bateman’s 1980 Cessna A152 Aerobat as the club aircraft.
AOPA plans its fly-ins, but volunteers bring them to life. Whether it’s setting up the main stage area, guiding cars and aircraft into their parking spaces, or taking down displays and exhibits at the end of the event, volunteers help make the magic happen in many ways.
It was a momentary engine stumble, and P–51 Mustang pilot Mark Levy quickly put it out of his mind. The British warbird pilot was part of a 21-airplane formation in the annual airshow at Duxford, England, in July 2017, and he concentrated on maintaining his position within that large group.
Kellee Edwards teared up and could barely get through the first introduction to her Travel Channel show Mysterious Islands. The show was such a dream come true that the self-proclaimed “adventure traveler” was overcome. But, like everything this bold young woman attempts, she persevered and her adventures around the world have now become one of the Travel Channel’s most-watched shows.
Flying from frigid, blustery Montana to hot, humid Florida in 17 hours over a day and a half gave AOPA the perfect opportunity to settle in for a lengthy field test of the Sweepstakes Super Cub’s ergonomic cockpit. On long flights, fatigue can be a major concern, particularly in an aircraft without an autopilot, but this PA–18’s rigging and modern-day creature comforts stave off the yawns and keep the pilot smiling hour after hour.
Various government agencies have asked AOPA to help spread the word about special-use airspace, including temporary flight restrictions (TFRs), that drone pilots have violated with increasing regularity. AOPA is working with the FAA and other stakeholders to make important information (including TFR times and locations) more easily accessible.
Piper produced the short-wing Pacer PA–20 from 1950 through 1954. Like its more recognizable cousin, the J–3 Cub, the Pacer is a fabric-constructed conventional-gear airplane.
An invitation is meant to convey importance and value. When someone values you enough to want you to share an important moment in their life, they invite you to that event. When my 15-year-old grandson, Matt, invited me to share his special event of escaping the surly bonds of Earth on his first introductory flight in a machine heavier than air, I felt that sense of value.
“Centurion Three-Six-November, are you receiving the localizer?” was the first radio call I heard from Minneapolis Approach after becoming established in our left turn to a heading of 200 degrees. This turn was supposed to put us on an intercept angle for the ILS approach. Luckily, I knew what was wrong. During our turn to heading 200, our horizontal situation indicator got stuck on the heading of 220.
As of May 1, 55,548 U.S. civilian aircraft have equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Out. Of that total, 40,368 are certificated, fixed-wing general aviation aircraft. There are 18 months until January 1, 2020—the date after which the FAA has mandated installation of ADS-B Out to fly in airspace where a transponder is required today.
You’re on your way to AOPA’s home base in Frederick, Maryland, on a dreary morning and the recorded ATIS voice confirms you’ll make an instrument approach when you get there.
General aviation activity is increasing again and the accident rate continues to decline. That’s right, we’ve got more pilots buzzing around and better safety (see “On the Numbers”). To appreciate how impressive our safety record is, let’s stick our heads out the aircraft window and see how the rest of the world is doing—while they’re driving their cars, crossing the street, or using tools. Car crash fatalities have spiked 15 percent over the past two years. Pedestrian fatalities are up 11 percent. More than 250,000 people visited an emergency room last year following a botched attempt to stand on a stool or a ladder.
We all know what aircraft spark plugs do: They accept high-voltage pulses from a magneto or electronic ignition unit and produce an electric spark inside the cylinder’s combustion chamber to ignite the air/fuel mixture and initiate a flame front. They do this about 20 times per second under hostile conditions of extreme temperature and pressure.
