mtrescott I'm in New York City for a few days for a funeral, but was fortunate to be included in the quarterly tri-state area Master CFI teleconference organized by my friend David Dempsey. Carl Dietrich, CEO of Terrafugia, was on the call and he gave us a great rundown on the Transition, a new Light Sport … Read more
The pilot dies at the controls and the passenger lands the airplane. It’s every passenger’s nightmare, the subject of countless movie, but almost never really happens. But it happened for real on Easter Sunday over the skies of Florida. You can hear the 20 minute ATC conversation with the passenger/pilot that led to a successful … Read more
The 2007 crash of a Cessna Citation flying a University of Michigan medical team may have resulted from the wrong push of a button by the copilot. So says an article in yesterday’s Detroit Free Press. While the final NTSB report has not been issued, preliminary data points in several directions including the possibility that … Read more
Thanks to everyone who sent a suggestion via email, Twitter, Facebook or added a comment to the blog. Here are your General Aviation Hero choices, presented in no particular order. #1 The 16-year old Kid. Ian Twombly of AOPA submitted my favorite suggestion “It's under the category of ‘general hero’ but I've always admired… the … Read more
Part I of this series honored Clyde Cessna, Part II featured a group of people: Flight Instructors and Part III covered EAA founder Paul Poberezny. Tomorrow’s final article in the series will be based on reader suggestions. Tell us who you feel is a General Aviation hero by clicking on Comments at the bottom of this … Read more
Part II of this series featured a group of people: Flight Instructors. In Part III, we honor an individual—Paul Poberezny, the founder of EAA. Ryan Keough, who writes a blog, contacted me through twitter.com and suggested Paul. If you’d like to make a suggestion for this series, click on Comments at the bottom of this … Read more
Part I of this series featured an actual person—Clyde Cessna. In Part II, we honor a group of people: Flight Instructors. Except for the early aviation pioneers who had to teach themselves how to fly, nearly every pilot flying is indebted to one or more of their flight instructors. If you have a true passion … Read more
Every day this week, I’ll be posting a story on General Aviation Heroes. When you think of aviation heroes, Sully Sullenberger, who successfully ditched US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River following multiple bird strikes, comes immediately to mind. Yet our focus this week is on General Aviation, not Commercial Aviation. The articles are … Read more
Ever since Sully Sullenberger successfully ditched US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River following bird strikes that killed both engines, public awareness and interest in bird strikes has been on the rise. The FAA has a database of 100,000 bird strikes reported since 1990 and it presumably sheds some light on a problem which, … Read more
As the facts emerge over the crash of a Pilatus PC 12 with 14 people aboard in Butte, Montana, one thing is clear: there were more passengers aboard than there were seats or seat belts. What is not clear, and won’t be for many months, is exactly what caused the crash. However, the simple fact … Read more