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Not the first high profile balloon accident where drugs were involved. Big reason the FAA started requiring medicals for commercial balloon operators.

In my lifetime, I have known 5 pilot/builders that had auto engine powered experimentals. All spent far more time and money engineering, tinkering, and repairing their one of a kind setup. All experienced multiple small, and sometimes large, failures. All of these aircraft have either been...

I thought the problem today is that subs are too quiet. Now you look for where the noise isn't, because the sub is blocking it.

You two are on the right track. Even if the board or city council that control the airport aren't pilots, often times pilots and aircraft owners are among the "movers and shakers" of the community, and they have their ear. Being an airport manager at a public airport becomes a very political...

Buying land would be cheaper?

Therein lies the issue. We just built a set of 10 T-Hangars on an already shovel ready site. $1.5 million. That is $150,000 per unit. If it wasn't for grant funding, there is no way our local pilots would have been willing to pay what it would cost to amortize the project. If you figure a...

After reading most of this thread, all I can add is thank God for bi-fold doors.

Ah balloon flying, riding in a wicker basket under a big flammable parachute with a flame thrower and a propane tank. What could possibly go wrong?

There is a reason the majority of airports are government owned and run. Far far too much infrastructure to construct and maintain profitably. The real value of most airports is the intangible economic impact for the community.

Shoot! You finally caught me!

And have to plan at least a few extra days for weather. But I guess if time is not critical, and you really want to build a lot of helo hours for some reason.

Pickup truck with flatbed trailer would be my first choice.

My wife has said on more than one occasion she might be interested in learning to fly, but in no uncertain terms would she ever want me to teach her. I think it has to do with the marriage cliché that the wife is always right and the husband is always wrong, makes for a strange learning...

Substitute training for a high performance endorsement for going to school to get a type rating for a jet. Pretty standard for employers to pay for the necessary training to fly a specific aircraft.

The engines shut down less than a second apart. If one failed, I doubt they could have reacted quickly enough to shut down the other in less than one second. The only way that could have happened is both levers coming to shutoff simultaneously.

I wouldn't go as far as saying that was the only cause, but it was one of very many metrics that changed our economic structure. Trying to pin down economic evolution to any single data point is just argumentative.

Exactly. I don't think anyone would argue that either was bad, but it just goes to show how dynamic the economy is. It isn't easy to pick one statistic, such as minimum wage or housing cost, and use it to prove or disprove inequality, poverty, etc.

I've often wondered about that. Was the push the declining value of wages, or was the declining value of wages caused by the feminist movement that encouraged women to get out of the homemaker role and into the workforce. There was a dynamic that changed in that era that led to an almost...

Sadly there aren't. The larger the airport, the higher the education and experience is expected, as is the pay. Director of a major Class B airport will likely have a Masters or higher degree and many certifications. Small single strip in a town of 5,000, it might just be the city manager or...

I like to consider myself pretty versed in unusual aircraft. I have literally never seen or heard of that one. Very interested to find out the answer.