GPS

If you’re flying over remote terrain where traditional communication methods may be unreliable, you may be wondering how anyone would be able to reach you in case of an emergency. This is where a personal locator beacon (PLB) or a satellite messenger can come into play. PLBs are emergency devices that transmit distress signals via […]

When we moved east from arid northern Arizona to the very humid state of Florida, controlling corrosion on our trusty Cardinal became a full-time job. Like so many others, we hangar the bird and treat the airplane’s wings, fuselage, and tail feathers to an internal spray corrosion treatment regimen every couple of years. I make […]

The development by the United States Department of Defense of the Global Positioning System (GPS) was a watershed in area navigation, though it wasn’t the first such system. Before civil-use GPS came along in the late 1980s, there were already a few area navigation systems, though few ever made their way into the flight decks […]