AOPA Pilot Magazine - Turbine Edition

Essex County Airport (CDW) in Caldwell, New Jersey, is a tower-controlled reliever airport that takes some of the strain off other local airports such as Newark and Teterboro.

The sight I’m seeing is glaringly at odds with the sound I’m hearing.

Flying an airplane smoothly demands dozens of subtle, often repetitive movements, like adjusting engine power each time the aircraft’s pitch attitude changes. Any repetitive process is, of course, perfect for some form of automation.

By AOPA Finance Team

At AOPA Finance, we often talk to people who have been looking at online listings and have found older jets for half a million dollars or less. Considering the capabilities of these aircraft, and the apparent inexpensive price, they often think they found a deal too good to pass up.

Everything about this maneuver feels wrong.

John Chirtea was obsessed.

Nearly 80 years ago, the Douglas DC–3 first took off from the runway at Santa Monica, California.

Once upon a time in a world that today is hard to believe, a young pilot cut a hole in the underside of his airplane, fitted a transistor radio tucked inside that hole with a microphone, and flew over his fellow man, preaching and entreating them to come worship with him at his church alongside Lake Ontario in New York.