Joe Marsh was the airport manager at Sedalia, Missouri, when I first began giving flight instruction 15 years…
There are many planes flying around these days and as, a general rule, the later the model, the…
Who was the first person to propose the use of aircraft in the national interest?
The high school students in the In-Flight! program spent a week on a university campus and learned about…
Birds, like pilots, don't always have a tailwind. As a matter of fact, they have the same problems…
I spent last week with 40 minority students who will be high school juniors and seniors in the…
There is perhaps no more appropriate application for the term "grass roots" than when applied operating an airplane…
What's the safest airline in the world?
I always was interested in flying. From the early days of my childhood, I'd watch on TV shows…
What propeller-driven aircraft had a fuselage that was nearly as tall as it was long?
As far as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is concerned, there are only two ways for a civilian…
Ramp checks, I am told, are just another way the Federal Aviation Administration enforces safety. It is not,…
When traveling at the speed of sound at sea level (assuming we use a "standard" atmosphere at 15…
With aircraft, there's usually very little in the way of chrome ornamentation. Unlike the Cadillacs and Fords of…
My MD-88 flight from Atlanta rocketed down final approach at the Class C primary airport in Florida this…
The accessory plug is an often-overlooked part of your airplane. In most airplanes, this was called the "cigar"…
You're descending at a relatively high speed in calm air, and since there was no forecast for nor…
I love writing about my friend Dick, since his thousands of hours of flying have been so fraught…
For what clever but ill-fated design was General George Armstrong Custer's great grand-nephew best known?
Just like the weather, about which everybody jokes but against which no one ever takes action, there is…
Pilots should practice cross country planning -- even on days when it does not look like a flight…
What IFR aircraft under ATC guidance in IMC (instrument meteorological conditions) may suddenly find that their services have…
I remember the old "Star Trek" series, in which the communications officer would utter those famous words as…
An airplane is a terrible classroom. It's noisy. It's cramped. It's hot -- or it's cold. It can…
The first aerial combat between two aircraft took place...
Students who learn to fly at controlled airports never know any different, but students who learn at an…
The first person to use an airplane for transportation on a regular basis (in connection with a non-aviation…
Flying away from the friendly confines of your home airport offers another great flying challenge. It also offers…
If you hear a repeating "dit-dah-dah-dit" (the letter "P" in Morse code) on 121.5 MHz, what kind of…
To the nearest 100 feet, estimate the takeoff distance into a 13 knot headwind for an airplane with…
You do not have to be an Instrument Flight Instructor (CFII) to give instrument flight instruction? No, the…
In some ways VFR flying can be more challenging than flying under instrument flight rules. Apart from the…
The NBAA reports that with the arrival of spring and more VFR days, the government has seen a…
Galileo notwithstanding, with raindrops, the bigger they are, the faster they fall. (For objects of that size, the…
My first instructor told me prior to our first night lesson that the airplane does not know that…
Which aircraft was the first to have variable-sweep wings?
Remember when airspace rules were about avoiding collisions with other airplanes? Return with me now to those days…
We all remember being told what it means if we're flying along and we see an airplane, and…
When was the first practical "black box" required aboard airliners?
To any student pilot the practice area is like the minor leagues is to a baseball player. In…
Pilots are trained to think, talk, and trust numbers -- specifically, performance numbers. But somewhat like the good…
What fighter airplane had an "F" type designator, but yet carries no guns?
In the flurry of messages that came in the wake of the story on fuel tank explosions during…
I was giving a stage check to a pilot who had just soloed the day before and I…
When did our primary airspeed indications (that is, those used by general aviation) go from reading in miles…
We all know that filing a flight plan is good insurance, priceless in fact: it (still) doesn't cost…
I was in the right, front seat of a new Beech Baron. My student, owner of the factory-fresh…
The greatest number of engines used on any production airplane was...