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Ha! Many moons ago (long before HEF even had a tower), I worked as a lineman for Colgan - back when old man Colgan was still running it. They had 2 Beech 99's, and 2 1900's (one of which was the first production airplane, IIRC). They operated one 1900, leased the other to someone else. Chief...

Here's two operating principles I've found useful: 1) Always do a testflight similar to above after mx. 2) Include in the brief (I"m an instructor) hours since last major mx - if you're 5-10 hours since the last major "touch", you've got a lot less to worry about. YMMV

Ha! Been flying more than 35 years, and I've NEVER seen one of their videos....

This photo was from a pretty good distance, but doesn't look like "low ready" to me. If I was the Kings, I'd be PO'd by the time it was over. And I might even keep writing about it for a couple dozen years. Look, people were detained, just like in Soviet Russia, based on some bonehead mistake...

Meh. On the one hand, one of the few articles about aviation to actually call the ramp the ramp, and not "the tarmac". On the other hand, they spelled Scott Fancher's name wrong. As for the substance of the article (and not the trivial crap) - article was ok for what was there, but light...

Ouch! There was a recent article in the Seattle Times about a brain drain of experienced engineers out of the company. Maybe they can get Ron W. to come out of retirement?

I think you're wrong on this one. My understanding is that for paid instruction to occur in an E-AB, EITHER the owner has to have a LODA OR the CFI has to have a LODA. Both aren't required. As a CFI, I got mine and it was painless. What I can't do under my LODA is offer up my own E-AB for...

An excellent video, and the guy's pretty honest about his mistakes. Even so, there's LOTS of engineering and "customer service" going on while airborne - which are huge distractions. With all that in-cockpit engineering, looks like he never cycled the master or checked if that breaker had...

I think you meant Cessna 170B. The 170A flaps are itty-bitty little guys that don't do much....

I'd completely agree with Palmpilot here. Looks like Zahran is a Sociologist, now in the Economics department at Colorado State. Many would not associate that kind of work with the word "science".

I've given quite a few Flight Reviews in experimental aircraft, but a few notes: I don't think the FAA policy muddied the waters, it clarified them, just in a VERY unfortunate way. My read: you or the pilot receiving instruction now need a LODA. I won't be giving instruction in an...

Meh. As a CFI operating out of some fairly heavy-use class D airports out west, I see a mix. The competent controllers give enough information to fly a good pattern and deconflict properly, and will step in only when they need to. The less competent ones (which seem to almost all be new) try...

Yes.

Truly uncompensated instruction SEEMS to be ok within the context of the June 4 letter. I probably would have donated my time for this guy (he's one to step up), but there's no way wt & balance works with me in the back seat of that RV-4 (which already is a fairly heavy one.) I'd need to lose a...

That AC (AC 90-109A) doesn't lay out any additional options - but it does elaborate a little on option 1 (flying his new-to-him airplane without any RV time, if a comparable aircraft, presumably not impeded by this new letter, can be found.) Doesn't matter for him now. He'll be getting RV...

Sure there are. And some even do this instruction consistent with the regulations. In the US, there are 13 people that actually hold letters of deviation authority (LODAs) for relevant airplanes (in my view, RVs that aren't RV10s or 12s). He's calling all of them. Prior to the June 4 letter...

I have. When you read the FAA stating that their own guidance to inspectors is inconsistent with their (new) interpretation of the regulations (see footnote 5), you gotta believe they've screwed up. Whether they've just tumbled to it now, or their new interpretation of instructing as carrying...

An actual example: I've got a TW student (private cert and instrument rating, but relatively low time) in the process of buying an RV-4. He got a deposit in before the June 4 letter. So now he's looking at 3 choices: Fly his new-to-him airplane with no instruction in RVs. (A bad idea, and...

I'm a TW CFI, and I also rent my airplane out to qualified pilots so they can maintain proficiency. A few other instructors also instruct in my airplane, and we operate to a common syllabus. We'll tailor our instruction to the individual student, but we use a documented standard for...

Every time I read one of these articles, I'm reminded of an excellent interview with the lady that runs (or ran) Duke's autonomous vehicles lab. She's a former F-18 pilot. She essentially said we tend to tackle the automation problem from the wrong end: We take care of the mundane stuff with...