Aviation News

The interested observer mightconclude that last week’s action in New Orleans was the be-all-and-end-all ofgeneral-aviation news-of-the-world, what with all the big-dollar purchases, newprogram announcements and avionics-program launches that came with the NationalBusiness Aviation Association convention. But general aviation pilots attending the annualconvention of the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association – AOPA Expo 2000 -found plenty […]

News: AOPA Expo 2000 Image Gallery Click on any image to view a larger version.(Images open in a new window.) Check Out AVweb‘sAOPA Expo 2000 Coverage

Did ya’ hear about the school board for a midwestern state that approached theend of the 1990s by “de-emphasizing” evolution in science classes? Thereally wanted to roll time back to before George of the Jungle came to Kansas —but not so far back that they couldn’t keep the Tin Woodsman, the Scarecrow,Dorothy — and her […]

Somany pilots forget, or never knew, that the earliest heavier-than-air birdspretty much all flew beak-first. But check out any photo of the Wrights’earliest machines and some built by their followers … the canard. Strange thatthe canard never really became an industry standard, long ago overshadowed by”backward-built” airplanes, those with the tail surface in back, inone […]

Myadventure started when my soon-to-be-husband and I began searching for a WilgaPZL-80. We figured finding one of the ungainly-looking Polish birds in thecondition we wanted and a price we thought fair would be a relatively easything. Six months later, after a thorough search of the U.S., Canada, and muchof Eastern Europe, we had revised our […]

BoDiddley made famous a line that struck me with its truth from my first exposure,a refrain that stayed with me from my teen years on: Most often, people reminded me of Bo Diddley’s refrain, folks whosepersonalities defied the overrated “first impression” deemedall-important by so many advising adults. As the years progressed, machinesoccasionally connected that same […]

On July 13, 1999, the Florida State Attorney’s Office brought criminal charges against SabreTech, Inc. because of the 1996 ValuJet DC-9 disaster. The state prosecutor’s charges include 110 counts of third-degree murder and manslaughter under Florida law against SabreTech, Inc. Apparently no state criminal charges have been filed against any of the executives or employees […]

Anytimea vector takes me across the scene of a hot-rod show or an ad hocdrive-in gathering, memories of weekend nights spent idling through hometowncruising spots nearly always sweep me back to my teenage years. That neverhappened with an airplane, though. Until, that is, those same hot-rod imagesflashed back to me upon my first glimpse of […]

ExcitementAnd Growth Still Energize General Aviation’s Hard-Core Hardy Anyone who arrived a day early for AOPA’s 60th Anniversary convention,Expo ’99, got a near-identical taste of what early arrivals experienced going toAtlanta the week before the NBAA Convention: low ceilings, soggy skies, and morerain than the runway drains could handle at Atlantic City International Airport(ACY). (Of […]

Interview with the FAA’s Chief Counseland Deputy Chief Counsel This is an edited transcript of meeting held August 17, 1999, at FAA Headquarters in Washington DC. Representing the FAA were Chief Counsel Nicholas Garaufis, Deputy Chief Counsel James Whitlow, and Eliot Brenner from FAA Public Affairs. Representing AVweb were Editor-In-Chief Mike Busch, Executive Editor Jeb […]