AOPA's monthly magazine offers aviation articles on technique, aircraft, avionics, advocacy efforts, and more for veteran pilots and aviation enthusiasts alike.
I used to call it a gyrocopter. Now I call it a gyroplane. A gyroplane is not a helicopter, nor is it an airplane precisely—but rather a hybrid of the two that makes it a fun, quirky, and sporty entrant to recreational flying. No matter what you’ve flown in your aviation career, an hour in a gyroplane will make you question your life goals and start planning how you can join this small, adventurous segment of aviation.
Many pilots—and likely all museum curators—believe that the last existing example of an antique aircraft should stay safe on the ground, preserved inside a darkened museum gallery. Certainly, it shouldn’t be flying into the vagaries of wind and weather, susceptible to the reliability of antique aircraft engines. David Devries of Windham, New Hampshire, isn’t one of those pilots. After finding the last existing Kinner Sportwing, a one-of-a-kind aircraft from the Golden Age of flight, he rescued it, had it restored, and then flew it home. This airplane will not be confined to a museum—not just yet.
Imagine a normal flying day. We wake up, check the local METAR, and check the METARs and TAFs at our destination and along the route. We smile if the sky is clear, groan if there are bumps, sigh if the weather is miserable.
I’ll tune in early to the bowl games this holiday season in hopes of catching the pregame fly-bys. A perfectly executed stadium fly-by comes in fast, low, loud, and overhead just as the national anthem is ending. It’s not enough to be on target, nor is it enough to mosey in on time, whispering over the venue in cruise power. The objective is speed, noise—power the audience can feel. Give them a few seconds as the national anthem is reaching dramatic conclusion to revel in the power, pride, and precision of their military air power.
Every time I share the gift of flight with someone new, I end up receiving far more than I give away. Perhaps it is because everyone has something to teach, even when they are very young—maybe especially when they are very young.
My November column about pilot logbooks attracted the attention of reader Dudley H. Johnston, who has flown enough to fill 15 of his own. He wrote to say that his logbooks contain all of the requisite signatures plus those of his two most famous passengers, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, autographs obtained on separate flights. Johnston says that each of the former presidents added a “nice note,” which made for “really special entries.”
No joy this new year in my own little Bonanzaland. On each New Year’s Day for most of the past 20 years, I have flown my Beechcraft Bonanza A36, believing that there’s no better way to kick off the new year than to put some airspace under the wheels of an airplane.
“Your freedom to fly” isn’t just the tagline etched on AOPA baseball caps, bumper stickers, and merchandise that you’ll find at fly-ins and airshows. The mantra means something different to each of our members, but overall it signifies our commitment to building and maintaining a strong pilot community for generations to come.
AOPA and five other aviation-industry groups urged House and Senate committees to reject several proposals they believe would compromise safety, “dismantle a thriving rotorcraft industry,” and disperse FAA regulatory clout among countless local governments.
Tim Tucker knows more about the Robinson R22, R44, and R66 than you do. In fact, as Robinson’s chief flight instructor and creator of the Robinson Pilot Safety Course, he probably knows more than anyone in the world about how to fly Robinson helicopters safely.
Gulfstream broke one of the worst-kept secrets at the National Business Aviation Association’s convention in October by unveiling its latest large-cabin business jet: the G700.
AirSync is a cloud-based service that seeks to bring pilots into the twenty-first century by providing immediate access to all kinds of data: flight history, fuel on board, fuel burn, engine parameter graphs, and more. The data can remain in the cloud, be accessed from a web portal, or be transmitted to an app. It can be produced as a hard-copy report, and flights can be saved in an electronic logbook.
AOPA’s fifth High School Aviation STEM Symposium was held at the United Airlines Flight Training Center in Denver in November. The event included a dozen breakout sessions; addresses from leaders at United Airlines, Uber Elevate, and the U.S. Air Force; as well as opportunities for teachers to network and share ideas.
The first airfield on the site of Dillingham Airfield (HDH) was called Mokuleia Airstrip, built by the U.S. Army in the years before the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. A few pilots from nearby North Shore Army airfields were able to get airborne and confront the Japanese on that infamous day, as depicted in the movie Pearl Harbor.
The Gulf Coast of Florida is a surprise. The state’s interior of flat, brown landscape crosses the west coast canals into areas such as Vanderbilt Beach on the north side of Naples.
Cessna 140s are the quintessential budget buy. Inexpensive to purchase, economical to operate, and with few moving parts to wear out—they just want to keep flying. These simple airplanes encourage frequent joyrides, epitomized by the 30-minute sunset flight.
A New England flight training business known for nurturing students in a professional environment and a Tar Heel flight instructor recognized for his patience and motivation, were honored as the top winners of AOPA’s 2019 Flight Training Experience Awards.
Repeat after me: Divergence aloft means convergence at the surface. This fact is central to the dynamics within the areas of fastest winds aloft. These are found in the streaks and cores of 100-plus-knot winds embedded within the jet stream, which encircles the poles and undulates as it flows from west to east (in the northern hemisphere).
It’s finally January 2, 2020—or darn close to it, anyway—and the FAA’s much-discussed ADS-B Out mandate is in effect. ADS-B uses GPS instead of ground-based radar to determine aircraft position, and is now required for operations in the airspace defined by FAR 91.225; generally speaking, this ADS-B rule airspace is where transponders long have been required.
By James Rush Manley
The experienced pilot carefully preflights her Cessna 182. She confirms all required documents and navigation information aboard. She listens to AWOS and performs a complete run-up. Everything looks good, so she checks for conflicting traffic. Seeing none, she moves over the runway centerline and advances the throttle. In a few moments, the airspeed needle reaches 50 knots. She applies gentle back-pressure and lifts off, enjoying the smooth transition from ground to air.
Fall is a wonderful time to fly in the Rocky Mountains. The summer thunderstorms have moved on, the air is clear and cool, and aspen trees splash electric gold across the landscape. My business partner August and I were scheduled to attend an engineering conference in Las Vegas, so we planned on flying there from our town of Gunnison, Colorado, in my Cessna 182 RG Turbo.
Although I love flying upside down where I live in beautiful southeast Tennessee, few things make me happier than planning and executing an instrument flight as it’s usually part of a family adventure. Staying current, though, can be a tall order, especially in the winter months. Per FAA regulations, a pilot must have logged at least six approaches and performed holds in actual or simulated instrument conditions within the past six calendar months in order to file an instrument flight plan.
Depending on where you live, winter can mean anything from the palm trees have just been trimmed and I think 60 degrees is cold to I am going to be snowed in for months and I’m happy about it. For most of us, it’s somewhere in between.
