Read more: November 2022 APA Scholarship Program
By Chris Nugent   October has been an exciting month for the APA Scholarship program! We closed the 2021 APA scholarship cycle at the end of October and had another great turnout for the program with 43 applications being submitted. This is about the same number submitted in 2021 (42 applications) but still up significantly from the 29 we received in 2020 and 24
Read more: Safe, or Safety,  What Does it all Mean?  By Barbara Harper and Howard Deevers   The words safe and safety have not been used for long in industry as we find them used today. Now the words seem overused, or sometimes even mis-used. It seems that you can’t buy any product that does not come with some kind of “safety” warning on the label or printed on a paper that’s included with the
Read more: October 2022 APA Scholarship Program
By Chris Nugent   September was a busy month for the Scholarship Committee with schools back in session and the scholarship application deadline fast approaching at the end of October. We were fortunate enough to be able to hold eleven in-person information sessions at University of North Dakota (UND), Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC) and the East Valley
Read more: The Most Important Thing
  By Howard Deevers   After a student pilot has had a few lessons and begins to understand the airplane, systems, and physical laws of flying, I like to ask a question: What is the most important item on this airplane? The student will usually think about all of the instruments, radios, wings, engine management and give me an impressive list of items: “The
Read more: Checking the Oil and Kicking the Tires
  By Howard Deevers   The opinions express here are the authors only, and may not reflect those of APA, or any other aviation organization. On our very first flying lesson, we were taught to do a “Pre Flight Inspection.” Or, at least we should have been taught that. I don't remember anything resembling a Pre-Flight on my first three flying lessons. Is it because
Read more: APA Scholarship Program
By Chris Nugent   September is shaping up to be a busy month for the Scholarship Committee as we start our program information sessions at schools and colleges across Arizona. We’re fortunate to be able to do many of these sessions in person this year and it’s always great to be able to talk to the students directly. With the October 31st deadline approaching
Read more: Keeping Arizona’s Backcountry Airstrips Open - Double Circle Ranch Airstrip History
  By Rick Bosshardt    Much of the Southwest’s history revolves around old civilizations.  They include the ancient Anasazi, who built cave dwellings that are still in evidence today, and Native American tribes who dominated the landscape from the 17th century and on.  Much more recently, settlers from the eastern lands of America moved west, with
Read more: Is
  By Howard Deevers   We can ask that question about a lot of things in life. It may be legal to go through a traffic signal on a “yellow” that’s about to turn red, but is it really safe? Driving in Tucson, I have seen too many intersection crashes to want to be a part of that. We can think of many other aspects of life to quote here but let us keep to
Read more: Open for Applications! (Scholarship Corner in August)
~  Scholarship Corner  ~    By Chris Nugent   Scholarships are an important part of APA’s mission and we’re excited to announce to the next application cycle for the 2023 academic year. The deadline for applications is 31 October 2022 and we encourage all students pursuing an aviation career to apply. The Scholarship Committee will be starting
Read more: That First Solo Flight
  By Howard Deevers   One of the greatest thrills of learning to fly is that first solo flight. All of us remember our first solo; our instructor just signed our logbook for solo, and now we are on our own. The emotion is high, and the apprehension is even higher. For the first time our safety net, the instructor, is not there. It is an event that we never