I’ve always been fond of Rolls-Royce engines. They were the beating heart of our most iconic warbirds, and even today are propelling the finest business jets on Earth. But there’s one particular Rolls product which has outlived all the others… and it’s probably one you’ve never heard of. Read more →
Each flying job requires a unique set of skills. Failure to heed the small differences can lead to big accidents, and sometimes that failure goes back to the pilot’s training — or lack thereof. Read more →
Business jets offer the opportunity not only to fly to many interesting places, but to do so at widely varying weights and conditions. As a result, your trusty flying machine can be a blazing thoroughbred one day and a dehydrated mule the next. Read more →
Summer is here, and it’s got me thinking about important temperature limits for airplanes — and the pilots who fly them. Read more →
The advent of smartphones and apps has led to a variety of creative new businesses which are reinventing how we shop, work, and communicate. They’re also changing how we travel by bringing private aviation to the masses. Read more →
Automation and high-tech equipment can certainly make flying safer. But it can also allow our manual flying skills to deteriorate, and –even worse — mask the deficiency altogether until the day those skills are suddenly needed. Read more →
Who are the aviation industry’s most ardent enthusiasts? Builders? Pilots? Aeronautical engineers? I think the answer is “none of the above”. Instead, it might very well be a group of people who are outside the airport fence. Here’s the fascinating story of one such individual. Read more →
The NTSB report on the Bedford G-IV crash has been released, and “pilot error” doesn’t even begin to describe it. How do respected, well-trained, experienced pilots screw up so badly? And could it ever happen to us? Sadly, the answer is “yes”. Read more →
I recently encountered a uniquely modified aircraft in Hawaii that got me thinking about how business jets serve millions of people who never get to ride in them and are probably not even aware of their existence. Even in the GA community, I’d imagine plenty of folks would be surprised how many of these customized airplanes are out there and what they do for us on a daily basis. Read more →
The latest crop of long-range business aircraft have the ability to traverse most of the world’s routes non-stop. For those which remain out of reach, I muse about whether the added range is worth pursuing in an environment of diminishing returns. Read more →