Blog

With the Senate’s overwhelming passage of the FAA Reauthorization bill—the House passed it last week—the temporary funding measure goes to the president’s desk for his signature. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law by July 15. While the bill is a broad funding measure, of greatest interest to us personal transportation pilots […]

A new rule means the outdated FAA 3rd Class Medical could be a thing of the past for many of us. With the coming adoption (no jinx) of the FAA Third Class medical reform bill, I might never have to go through an FAA exam again. And I couldn’t be happier. Here’s how the timetable […]

There are probably some pilots who want aviation to be a small world, who’d like nothing better than to make being a pilot and owning an airplane an exclusive club. Let me be clear: We are not those people. We want flying to be open to everyone who wants to fly. It won’t be easy […]

The ACS standards that are now in effect for both knowledge and practical testing are, in theory, a great advance for the aviation community. The reality is a bit more complicated than that. It’s not easy for me to admit that there’s a downside to the change. For many years, I’ve loudly complained to anyone […]

The biggest threat to the popular legislation is a proposal to privatize air traffic control backed by a Congressman with a personal relationship with an airline lobbyist. Here we go again, trying to get a pilot’s medical certification proposal past the finish line. Whether it happens or not, kudos to the U.S. Senate, which earlier […]

The new Plane & Pilot stands for a lot of things the old brand did, including our embrace of low-and-slow and alternative forms of committing aviation. Beyond that, we stand for a few more beliefs that bear comment, some of which are right in line with what P&P has always believed and shouted that fact […]

With little fanfare the FAA announced earlier this week that it was going to give owners of airplanes in need of ADS-B gear a $500 incentive to equip. The plan has been widely praised by aviation organizations from AEA to the ZBAA, and those organizations are encouraging everyone to spring into action and be one […]

Aviation lessons, the hard way, from my father Much of what I know about flying and about airplanes comes from a small number of people I’ve worked with over the past 25 years. Some were mentors, some were friends and colleagues, and some were heroes. By far, the most important of all was my father, […]

The story of a startup airplane maker is an arc. Here’s what ICON’s might mean. The one name that everyone says when they talk about ICON Aircraft and its controversial A5 LSA amphibian program and that no one ever puts in print is this: “Eclipse.” Unless you’ve been lost in the Amazon for the past […]

One of the most rewarding things about flying our own airplanes is just how far it takes us from the world of political nonsense here and abroad. The fact that in most places we can walk out to our airplanes and just go flying is especially sweet to those of us who also get stuck […]