By Ron Rapp I’ve been flying sixteen years now, and the specter of user fees has haunted the general aviation community the entire time. Longer, in fact. The history of these proposals has been summarized by AOPA if you care to know the full background, but one thing not many of us remember is that these taxes were…

  This is guest post from professional pilot and author, Byron Edgington.  He is the author of The Sky Behind Me and you are sure to enjoy this piece.    PART 1:   Ft. Wolters Texas, Army Helicopter Flight School 1969.   Once my Snowbird month was over it was time to head to the flight line where…

Com-pe-tent adjective 1. having the necessary ability, knowledge, or skill to do something successfully.   Con-fi-dent adjective 2. feeling or showing confidence in oneself; self-assured.   In our world as pilots, competence is seemingly a Yes or No answer. You are or you aren’t, right? Sort of.    Who determines your level of competence? If you say…

Carrying on with the theme from my last post about young people doing amazing things (16 year old Aditya Palnitkar’s book Amazing Airlines) I wanted  give another young man a shout-out.    It is always a pleasure to learn about someone who has set a big goal and is working hard to accomplish it.   …

I was recently contacted by a young author named Aditya Palnitka. He wrote a book called “Amazing Airlines.” Having read the book, is it an excellent account of how airlines work. It goes into areas such as: the logistics involved in operation of an airline, all of the details you would see as a passenger…

Having fond memories of your own solo flight is one of the unique gifts of learning to fly. Like all pilots, it’s a seminal point in your journey. It’s akin to walking through a door into a new world. A world in which you alone control your destiny. You have crossed a threshold; you are…

If you read Part 1 you’ll know I was reveling in my successful freight run from Ohio down to the panhandle of Florida. The cargo happened to be my 18 year old son who was heading down to the Spring Break ravaged town of Panama City and a week of frolicking among other like-minded, hormone-encrusted,…

Luckily I have had the opportunity to fly an Extra a few times – from the passenger seat [PREVIOUS POST HERE]. I felt compelled to offer my thoughts on what might be one of the coolest machines I have ever handled. Extras are built at the Dinslaken Airfield in Germany. It is a certified, factory-built, thoroughbred…

Icarus was so enchanted by flight that he failed to heed his father’s warnings and crashed into the sea. He became hypnotized; drunken by his senses. He flew too close to the sun and melted his wings.   How many of us have found ourselves in this state? So enthused by the gift of flight…

Would you believe me if I stated I have a cure for the declining pilot population? And would you also believe me if I said YOU have the cure too?    It’s true. We have the power to manage this problem right now. It won’t take cheaper fuel, less government regulations, cheaper airplanes, more airports,…