Getting a glider into the air is a community affair—assistance is required. While a launch can be carried out via a winch and a long cable or a car and a long cable, by far the most common method is to use an airplane and a 200-foot nylon rope to launch the sailplane. That means […]
You took advantage of some free time to go flying over the weekend. It had been almost two months since your last flight, so you took the rental 172 around the pattern nearly a dozen times and got the rust off of your crosswind landings. On the drive home you replayed the flight in your […]
For decades the ultimate airplane pilots dreamed of and strived to own was a piston twin—often either a Beech Baron or Cessna 310. Beech, Cessna and Piper worked to develop brand loyalty and provided incentives for owners of their piston singles to step up progressively through the ranks of higher performance singles until they could […]
Over the last year Sporty’s (www.sportys.com) has issued the first of what is to be a series of online training courses that go beyond the usual private, commercial and instrument rating training materials. The initial two were on aerobatics and featured the legendary Patty Wagstaff. We were impressed by the content and quality of the […]
It’s that tiny, niggling detail between you and the professional pilot job or you and the traveling machine that you’ve wanted for years—the multi-engine rating. It’s the schizophrenic rating—great because there’s no written test and awful because you’ll be shelling out a boatload of money every hour you fly the trainer. We surveyed the market […]
Like the rest of the piston-single resale market, good training airplanes are fetching top dollar, even ones that might have lived hard lives on a training line. Upgraded ones that were we’ll cared for in the hands of meticulous private owners sell for even more. Using the most current Winter 2020 Aircraft Bluebook as a […]
We are encouraged but cautious when we learn of impending entrepreneurship in the aviation world. We know that the odds of success for startups are not outstanding, but for those who do their homework and find the right niche, they improve. After all, we know that there is money in aviation—we put a lot of […]
Let’s get this rolling by disputing what “everybody knows” when it comes to flying in icing conditions in general aviation airplanes that weigh less than 12,500 pounds. To start with, there’s no FAR specifically prohibiting flying those airplanes into known icing conditions or clearing all of the ice, snow and frost off of the wings […]
At no time in aeronautical history have pilots had a wider choice when it comes to the type and capabilities of the cockpit presentation when they fly IFR. For an instrument-rated pilot who wants to rent from the local FBO, the avionics variety means that the checkout may take some time as he learns how […]
In the June 2020 issue of Aviation Consumer, we reviewed the first of what we were told would be a series of aerobatic training videos from Sporty’s (www.sportys.com) prepared in conjunction with aerobatic legend Patty Wagstaff. It was a broad introduction to the world of akro with everything from history to snippets on many of […]
If you’ve been following our coverage of the aircraft insurance market you’ll know that it has—as we predicted a year ago—“hardened.” That’s a broker buzzword for high premiums, demands for frequent training and medical certification, longer transition instruction when moving up in aircraft and in some cases, non-renewal of policies even if you haven’t had […]
We’ve heard our share of horror stories from readers regarding their experiences in the “hard” insurance market that developed in the last two years. We’ve been tracking the market and reported on it in the February and December 2019 issues. It put an end to a “soft” market that had existed for over 30 years. […]
