AVweb Insider

Dick Collins didn’t know me at all in 1978 and didn’t owe me anything. But Dick did two memorable things for me, two career bookends really, that will last with me until I go West as he did this week. I was the new marcomm specialist at Collins Avionics, hired that hot summer in Cedar […]

In the ultimate act of jabbing a finger into the eye of fate, I’m writing today’s blog from seat 19D on a Southwest Airlines flight from Tampa to Denver. I tried to get the window seat directly abeam of the fan section of one of the engines, but passengers similarly casting caution to the wind […]

Change and I have an uneasy relationship, the former claiming I’m slow to embrace technology, unwilling to “try something new.” Sheesh … Change can be so … you know … and so in your face, too. I submit that ADFs and VORs were working just fine—when you could receive them—and I saw no value to […]

The Aero Expo in Friedrichshafen promotes itself as the pulse-meter of the European GA market and that often doesn’t come across in a factually balanced news release.By American standards, Aero is not a huge show, but it’s a busy one and a target-rich environment for new stuff. Yes, there was a clear dominance of electronics, […]

About a month after Chesley B. Sullenberger had ascended into sainthood after his skillful 2009 ditching of US Airways 1549 into the Hudson River, a network reporter took a few moments to ask him in depth what he thought about the mantle of heroism that had been thrust upon him. His response was memorable. He […]

The Marx Brothers nature of world events has reinforced my Groucho-inspired credo, “Whatever it is, I’m against it.” I’m skeptical about most things except when it comes to my airplanes. Owning two is like ordering a second beer while still holding the first, leading to similar results—you’ll spend more money, do something stupid and wake […]

Evidently, I’m either a recovering taildragger guy or one who’s in denial, according to John Whitish, the marketing guy at CubCrafters. I suppose I could be both. This was revealed Friday evening when I was speeding away from Sun ‘n Fun in the Millennium Nissan and Whitish invited me down to South Lakeland for a […]

I had a sinking feeling the other day when I read that a senator in Utah has introduced a bill to try to make it OK for pilots to seek out passengers by using apps and the Internet, joining the “sharing economy” of Uber and Airbnb. This argument already played out, over a year ago. […]

Anyone who attends Aero in Friedrichshafen for the first time would quite naturally believe Europe is awash in gyrocopters. The expo floor is just cheek-by-rotor jammed with them and somebody must be buying them or there wouldn’t be so many companies selling them. And that’s also why most of the gyrocopters you see at the […]

For as fun as airplanes are to fly, it’s even more interesting—at least to me—to contemplate how they’re built. And I don’t mean how a rib is riveted to a wing, but how the builders of these things organize the production of airplanes into an orderly flow. In other words, the economics of serial production. […]