Every pilot must, by law, complete a Flight Review (or equivalent) every 24 calendar months. The law specifies that this review must comprise at least one hour of flight and one hour of ground instruction, and it must include a review of the operating procedures of Title 14, Part 91 of the Code of Federal Regulations. “Part 91”, as it’s affectionately known,… Read more →
Month: January 2006
Boys Will Be Boys
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia written and maintained by the millions of people who use it.  Anyone can edit Wikipedia, and its contents are free and open. Open communities of this type have a sordid history on the internet. Without rigorous moderation, these things devolve into a repositories for conspiracy theorists, morons, flame wars, and really twisted stuff like spam. Usenet is… Read more →
Skylane Prepurchase Advice
The House of Rapp must show up at the top of some frequent Google search used by prospective Skylane owners, because I field a lot of inquiries about the airplane. In fact, I received one such query today. As a C-182 driver and previous owner I was wondering if you could comment authoritatively regarding the following comment from a back… Read more →
The Big 34
I just put up some captioned photos from my birthday party. I was gonna write a big thing about it, but photos are far more interesting aren’t they? I will say that when you have birthdays like this one, it almost makes getting older something to look forward to! A small group of close friends laughing the night away. Perfect.… Read more →
Who’s the Terrorist Now?
The latest AVweb contains a very disturbing article which, while aviation-related, has implications reaching far beyond our quirky corner of the world. Indeed, this thing comprises a serious erosion of basic constitutional rights that should concern every American whether they fly or not. …the California Department of Health Services, Radiologic Health Branch, came to the warehouse expressing concern about radium-dial instruments on the premises. This… Read more →
Irvine World News
Ah, the poor old Irvine World News. This is the Rodney Dangerfield of newsprint, a hometown paper which is printed once a week. It gets little respect, probably because they give it away for free.  “You get what you pay for” and all that. Plus, it really does confine itself to the world of Irvine. That fact alone makes the paper worthless to most of Orange… Read more →
Plastic Airliners
A post over at Cockpit Conversation got me thinking about the 787 Dreamliner, a new all-composite airliner from Boeing. That post referenced a British newspaper article whose title was a bit sensationalistic. “Passenger aircraft rivals clash over safety of fuselage built from plastic”. Airplanes are not built out of plastic, they’re made of carbon fiber. The two are both composite materials, yet interchanging them… Read more →
Mother Nature 1, Cirrus 0
When William Congreve wrote that “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”, the woman he had in mind was probably Mother Nature. Despite the fact that nearly a quarter of a million people are in the air at any given minute of the day, the rarified heights we pilots traverse are Her domain. And every now and then she reminds of that… Read more →
Freaky Friday
Did you know there’s a name for those who fear Friday the 13th? Paraskevidekatriaphobics. Try saying that three times fast. Some sources say it may be the most widespread superstition in the United States. Some people won’t go to work on Friday the 13th; some won’t eat in restaurants; many wouldn’t think of setting a wedding on the date. Just how many… Read more →
Go Sell Crazy Somewhere Else
I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. I was on my way to work a few days ago – cruising down Alton Boulevard at about 45 mph – when a small geriatric Asian woman suddenly jumped out in front of my car.  Her left hand went up, palm out, making the universal symbol for “stop” as though she was a traffic cop managing a… Read more →