Well, the winter weather is on us, and the northern part of the country is hunkering down trying to keep warm and trying to survive. I got a note from a friend near Oshkosh, and they were commenting that with the wind chill that night the temperature was expected to be -34°F. That’s enough of a reason to be living here in Arizona. So far, we’ve had a
Greetings,
Happy New Year! After massive caloric intake between Thanksgiving and New Year, I’m going to have to update my weight and balance before I fly again. I’m thankful for lower density altitude and better performance with the cooler winter temps. That’s a happy coincidence for sure! For APA, rounding out 2021 meant a banner year for our scholarship program
I hope everyone enjoyed a Merry Christmas and survived the New Year’s parties. We can now put 2021 in our rear-view mirror and look forward to a promising new year. The year 2021 with its virus pandemic issues was a bit trying on all of us, and I certainly hope we can move on to more fun things in the year to come. The flying weather has been a trifle changing
Greetings,
About a year ago, I found myself thinking out loud that at least 2020 was almost over! The craziness and chaos that surrounded nearly every facet of life last year would be coming to an end. A big sigh of relief, and then January came along. 2021 has turned out to be equally challenging, but in entirely different ways. The supply chain issues last year
Winter weather is here, and the days are really becoming shorter. The Saturday morning fly outs for breakfast are having to start out at dawn to get to breakfast on time. It won’t be long before we will have to start at official sunrise and probably still be a bit late, unless you are authorized to fly at night, and take off before sunrise. Anyway, it sure is
Pilots often bristle when hearing that the government wants to “get involved” in aviation. We think more red tape, more obtuse regulations, and additional financial burden will be coming along shortly. Bucking that stereotype is the Buckeye Mayor, Eric Orsborn. He is not only a staunch advocate for aviation, but he’s also looking at how to increase the general aviation
Greetings,
It's that time of year when the skies are once again filled with the sound of Lycomings and Continentals. Yes, the occasional lovely radial drowns out the others with a welcome roar, and the turbines blow by quickly. It's winter flying season. While the rest of the country is hunkering down, pickling engines, and getting the shovels and snow blowers out
Fall weather is finally here, and although some of the days have been a little warmer than normal, the flying weather has been great. I hope all of you have been enjoying it, also. It’s been good going on the weekend morning breakfast flights, and enjoying them with friends, and not getting banged around on the way home. This is the time of the year that we
Greetings,
In last month's column, I debated with myself whether to upgrade the hodge-podge steam gauge panel in my Comanche to a glass/partial-glass solution, or to keep the steam gauges going. The math was (seemingly) a no brainer; glass can run upwards of $130k, while keeping the legacy gear running can be a couple thousand per year. It's obviously far less
The fall weather is supposed to be on us, and fortunately the temperatures have come down a bit and the mornings have produced some really great cool flying. I certainly hope we are through with the really strong damaging monsoon winds that we had this year that blew in hangar doors and upset airplanes that were outside. Here is hoping that we can put this