Wondering whether you are going to dissolve into a puddle of sweat, you call tower advising that you’re ready for takeoff. Starting up, getting your instrument clearance, taxiing out and completing the runup in the heat-soaked airplane on a 95-degree day has been miserable—but relief is only a few minutes away when you climb into […]
UNLEADED AVGAS: EAGLE’S DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN The State of California is now fully aware that there is a viable, FAA-approved unleaded avgas—G100UL—and, from what I’ve learned from multiple sources, is demanding that it be sold at all California airports by the end of this year. That’s great news to pilots and especially to FBOs in California […]
In a world of pulling mags at 500 hours and turbos that last 1000, fuel pumps are a breath of reliability fresh air. So reliable, in fact, that it’s much more common for a pilot to have an engine stoppage because the pilot does not know the aircraft’s fuel system or misuses the boost/aux pump […]
We have a bias when it comes to flight training: We think that high-quality training, at all levels, is essential to overall aviation safety. We’ve watched the quality of flight training increase over the last several decades and feel that it has played a role in the decreasing accident rate for all segments of aviation […]
The rumors of spring have proven to be founded—which means that the thoughts of pilots are turning to … seaplanes. After winter’s unpleasantness the idea of landing on remote lakes to do a little fishing or dive in for a cooling dip on a hot day causes the prospect of adding on a seaplane rating […]
The combination of insurers watching accidents and resulting claims go down as the amount of recurrent training taken by pilots goes up has slowly but steadily caused more and more aircraft owners to discover that they must take some form of annual training to insure their machines. We’ll look at insurance requirements, how you can […]
During a crash sequence, an aircraft is called on to perform its final design feature—absorbing as much of the impact energy as possible and not transmitting those forces to its occupants as we’ll as not catching on fire because of a fuel system breach. For obvious reasons, the subject of post-crash fires gets the undivided […]
It had been such a good day. Things at the office weren’t too crazy, you finished a major project and got immediate, enthusiastic feedback so you shut off the computer, headed for the airport and took advantage the lovely weather with a flight around the area. It went great. As you finished tying down the […]
We have long been interested in pilot training courses and their content, availability, quality and cost. We watched the quality and ease of use go up dramatically with the advent of the first video courses and get even better as they became internet-based and increasingly interactive. We pay particular attention to what we consider turnkey […]
It happens—you need to have your airplane moved from one airport to another, but you simply can’t do it when the need arises. The good news is that there are lots of options available to you. Depending on the specific needs of the move involved, those options can range from surprisingly reasonable to breathtakingly expensive. […]
It starts innocently enough—in your fixed-pitch prop single, climbing out on a warm, but not hot, summer day, the VSI points to a number even lower than the usual lethargic rate. Or, on a cold morning the engine monitor on your Bonanza is showing higher than normal CHTs. Have you got a problem up front […]
They’re smaller than your thumb, inject a metered amount of fuel into each cylinder of your fuel-injected engine and rarely cause problems, but their maintenance needs should be understood as part of knowing the whys of your engine’s operation. Fuel injection was developed to overcome some of the disadvantages of carburetors, notably unequal distribution of […]
