When I’m in my own home town, which is a good portion of the time, I walk a lot. It’s an old habit, one I adopted as a public school student. My assigned school bus stop was two miles from my parent’s house. The bus stop was on a hard road, but our home sat […]
Opinion
Unstable approaches
Three and a half years into writing this column, I finally found where all the general aviation reports to NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System have been hiding. Usually, when I query the ASRS database, I get at least six reports from airline pilots for every one report submitted by a GA pilot. Not true for the […]
Breaking in the engine on an RV-6
Q: Hello, Paul. I live in South Africa, Johannesburg. I love reading your articles on engines. You have wise words. Thank you. I have an RV-6 built by myself and my brother-in-law. We fitted a Lycoming O-320-B2C that got overhauled after 560 hours by Alton Engineering. I believe you will be able to help me with […]
The caretaker’s task
Of all the mass produced airplanes ever to come off an assembly line, anywhere in the world, there may be no more iconic a flying machine than the humble Piper J3 Cub. First built in 1937, production of the Cub lasted a mere 10 years. By the time the Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, production line closed down […]
Not quite deja vu
Although I am a huge and unrepentant advocate for general aviation, my first exposure to flight involved a big aluminum tube powered by four round engines. Eastern Airlines was the carrier. Bradley Field in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, was the departure point. Gainesville, Florida, was the destination, with a change of airplanes in Atlanta. I was […]
“The solution is simple”
“If we truly want to fix the real problems facing the FAA today, the solution is simple,” claims Oregon Representative Peter DeFazio. Really? “Congress can and should pass targeted reforms.” Cool. That is simple. Umm. So… why haven’t you passed “targeted reforms” Rep. DeFazio? After all, you’ve served as a member of the House Transportation […]
End of an Air Force: Germany after World War II
At war’s end, statistics showed the race to produce German jet fighters like the Me 262 was ramping up.
Can you rebuild a narrow deck engine into a wide deck?
Q: I’d be most grateful if you could advise whether it would be feasible to take a narrow-deck Lycoming 360-A1A and rebuild it as a wide deck 360-A1A, with a new crankcase and cylinders. What parts could be reused otherwise? Mark Holmes A: Mark, you asked for my advice regarding taking a Lycoming 360-A1A series narrow-deck […]
From here to there and back again
My friend Eirlys is a youthful ball of fire. She’s just 18 years old. As of last week she’s now an official high school graduate, with a diploma to prove it. If all goes well, and weather permitting, she’ll be a brand new private pilot by the end of next week. She’s really something. I ran […]