We Pay, They Don’t
Yesterday we alighted in San Francisco to drop off a few passengers. Despite the fact that we were only on the ground for about twenty minutes and used no services, the FBO (fixed base operator) there still charged us $1,100 for the privilege. Contrast that with the U.S. government, which took over the office of a Boulder City FBO for four days, ran wiring, installed phone lines, confiscated his entire operation for a full day in support of a visit by President Obama, and then balked at the $50/day discounted rate that the owner asked the federal government to pay. First they refused to pay anything, later relenting and adding that they’d never use his facility again. “The one client I have today wants it for free,” Fahnespock. “It’s...
Read MoreReducing the Cost of Flight Training
One of the editors of AOPA Pilot magazine got in touch with me recently to ask if I had any potential article topics for the magazine. I was flattered that someone in his position would even be interested in my thoughts on the matter. I’m nobody special, just one in a long line of aviation-centric writers on the interwebs. Anyway, I noodled on it for a while and tossed out a few pitches. Some of my suggestions were destined to fall flat — for example, the subject of computers replacing flesh-and-blood pilots in the cockpit. It goes without saying that an article on the phase-out of human pilots might be unpalatable to publications whose primary audience is those very same humans. “Hey, look how quickly you could end up on the...
Read MoreWomen in Aviation
It seem that just about everyone in our beloved industry has their own opinion about the best way to halt the painful, grinding slide of general aviation toward the abyss. I’ve noticed that these schemes seems to have on thing in common: people. We need more people. From that standpoint, I think Scott Spangler is correct when he says women are the key to aviation’s future. Without them, we lack the energy and resources of half the potential aviators in our midst. At the moment, men outnumber women in aviation by a ratio of about 20-to-1. Even a modest improvement in those numbers would represent a dramatic changes in the number of pilots, mechanics, controllers, instructors, etc around us. For example, a 10:1 disparity would represent the addition...
Read MoreAviation Myths, Part 3
[For the rest of the series, see Part 1 or Part 2] Myth #11: Aerobatics are dangerous. Aerobatic flight has played a prominent part in many fatal accident reports. Sadly, that has given acro a bad name. A more thoughtful analysis, however, clearly shows that many — perhaps most — of those crashes are due to intentional low-altitude maneuvering. When aerobatic flying is pursued in a prudent, intelligent manner with sufficient altitude, the risks are far outweighed by the benefits. Many fatalities come from the world of air shows. Air show flying can be extraordinarily dangerous because there’s virtually no structure or limit on what a pilot is permitted to do. As long as pilots don’t direct the energy of the aircraft toward spectators,...
Read MoreAviation Myths, Part 2
[For the first five myths, see Part 1] Myth #6: Only an FAA-certificated mechanic can perform maintenance on an airplane. This myth can cost you — big time. A typical GA maintenance facility can charge $100 per hour, and aircraft spend far more time in the shop than even the most maintenance-prone automobiles. Do the math and you’ll see that, especially if you don’t fly your airplane at least a couple hundred hours per year, maintenance can easily top all other ownership costs combined. Why pay that much when you can do much of the work yourself? Experts agree: Aircraft owners who studiously and routinely do some basic maintenance themselves, rather than waiting for the 100-hour or annual inspection, not only might save money...
Read MoreAviation Myths, Part 1
Over the past decade and a half I’ve been keeping a mental list of frequently encountered misconceptions about flying. For some reason, I recently Googled “aviation myths” and found quite a few articles on the topic and it inspired me to finally set my own list to virtual “paper”. This list is not exhaustive, but it does represent the myths I encounter most frequently. Some of these are misconceptions held by non-pilots, others are more common among student aviators or even experienced professionals. I’ve written about a few of these in the past, but thought it might be worthwhile to throw the whole list out there for others to chew on. I’m planning to make this a three-part series, with five myths per post. Have you...
Read MoreSTOL Flying
Few people outside the aerospace sector are aware of the breadth and depth of our admittedly insular little world. If it’s not an airliner or fighter jet, it’s pretty much off the radar for the general public. I’ve been fortunate to partake in a wide variety of different flying activities throughout my career: aerobatics, sea planes, instructional flying, tailwheels, antiques, formation, skywriting, experimentals, warbirds, crop dusting, and now the rarefied world of high-end jet charter. But there’s one particularly tantalizing segment of aviation I’ve yet to delve into: the low level back-country “bush” flying you’ll find in places like Idaho, Alaska, and Canada. There you’ll find aircraft with astounding...
Read MoreVmc Rollover
Last month a Beech Queen Air experienced a low-altitude failure of the left engine shortly after takeoff. The aircraft crashed into a densely populated area of Parañaque City in the Philippines and resulted in 14 fatalities. The Queen Air was a precursor to the King Air 90 — essentially a large cabin-class twin with supercharged reciprocating engines. I’ve logged more than 2,000 hours of flight time in a military derivative of the King Air known as the U-21A, so the accident certainly piqued my interest. During my years flying that aircraft, quite a bit of time was spent talking, thinking, training, and otherwise preparing for just the kind of scenario encountered by the pilots in this accident: a sudden engine failure while low on altitude and...
Read MoreThe Year in Review
Welcome to 2012, the year it’s all supposed to end. Everyone likes to joke about the Mayan calendar, but perhaps they simply knew the election cycle would be tedious enough to make the entire planet take the Jonestown route. The turning of another page on the calendar reminds us of the passage of time. Or at least, it would if anyone had a calendar with physical pages to turn. For most it’s now done with the click of a mouse or flick of the finger on the iPhone. Even that is becoming passé — now you can simply talk to Siri and have her handle the scheduling for you. I wonder how long it will be before we can say things like, “Siri, load the ILS 19 approach and fly it for me. After we land, please taxi to Atlantic and have them add...
Read MoreBest Bang for the Buck
With a title like that, you’d think I’m about to expound on the virtues of a massage parlor which offers the proverbial “happy ending”. Alas, it was only the alliterative qualities of the title which I was after, and so we’ll be sticking to aviation topics today. And P.S., please get your mind out of the gutter, my friend. Anyway, aviation is a tough place for the dollar store crowd. When it comes to bargains, the list is short. Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to owning an airplane. The first thing any veteran aircraft owner will tell you is that there’s no such thing as an inexpensive airplane when it comes to overall cost of ownership. Sure, you can buy a piston twin in today’s market for almost...
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