AOPA Pilot Magazine

The remnants of a radar dish lie smashed alongside a taxiway, and the metal pole that held it aloft is twisted and ripped from its cement foundation.

South central Idaho. One mile visibility in mist and light snow. Temperature negative 3, dew point negative 5 degrees Celsius. The VFR conditions forecast earlier now seem a mirage. A spring-cum-winter morning turned nasty that snatched the life of a young freight dog earning her place in a demanding arena.

By Don Abbott

Aviation has been part of my life for almost 60 years. Until recently, I flew a fully equipped, air-conditioned Beechcraft Bonanza F33A for business and pleasure.

The haunting call of a loon pierces the early morning stillness on Heckman Lake, a mirror-smooth body of water surrounded by towering Sitka spruce, hemlock, and pines in Southeast Alaska.

Thoughts on flying the California Twofer

By Sen. James Inhofe

It is hard to believe that this year’s EAA AirVenture will be my last while serving in Congress. We have accomplished a lot together throughout the years, and it has been my honor to make your priorities my own during my tenure in the Senate.

My column in the June issue of AOPA Pilot (“Flying and Depression”) certainly stirred up a lot of conversations about mental health, flying, and the FAA.

“It’s good to be me,” beamed my father from the right seat of N47331, the Cessna 152 he bought and put on leaseback through Atlantic Aero in Greensboro, North Carolina.

“The only thing constant in life is change,” said Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher.

Those who follow my adventures—and misadventures!—might recall that one of my goals has been to fly 400 different types of aircraft. So far, I’ve made it to 363.

My two daughters each bought their first houses within a few weeks of each other last spring. As a result, we, as a family, have been highly focused on the skyrocketing housing market, wondering when it might cool off.

It’s hard to fathom where much of the United States was in 2020, and even just last year. Quite frankly, I’d rather not go there. I’m always focusing on the positive, and there’s a lot of that going around right now in our general aviation community.

With fuel prices at all-time highs, it’s more important than ever for pilots of general aviation airplanes to fly in a fuel-efficient fashion. I am especially sensitive to this issue because I fly a piston twin that guzzles 30 gallons per hour and I suffer post-traumatic stress each time I refuel.

Before whirling views of the ground filled the Mooney M20’s windscreen, I had asked my commercial candidate, Hal, to demonstrate a power-off stall.

One of my favorite games to play is “If I won the Powerball, which airplanes would I buy?” (Why limit yourself to one airplane?)

By Amanda M. Stahl, M.D.

April 2 was a nice, sunny spring day. I was planning to take a sunset flight to Hamilton, New York, which is about 78 nautical miles west of Albany International Airport (ALB).

George Braly, co-founder of General Aviation Modifications Inc. (GAMI), holds out a beaker and invites a visitor to waft it toward her nose. “Can you smell the difference between that and 100LL?” he says. “People say it’s got a sweeter smell.”

Pilots like to take potshots at weather forecasters—especially those who make terminal area forecasts (TAFs). Let a ceiling prediction of 1,000 feet turn out to be 3,000 feet—or 3,000 to 1,000 feet—and pilots are likely to complain that forecasters don’t know what they’re talking about.