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In Flight USA Articles
What's Up - January 2013
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2013
By Larry Shapiro
I hope you’re ready, and I certainly hope it’s going to be a good year for you. I suppose it’s safe to say it is going to be a better year for me … why, you ask? (And I hope you do.)
Well if you’ve been following my on-going battle with the FAFA Folks you know I lost my ticket because I told the truth, a lesson I no longer endorse. Their rationale was very flawed and I was determined to prove it. The jury is still out on whether I actually won my case, but one of the drugs I was dinged on is now FAA approved … so score one for the old Jewish guy, and zero for the FAFA peeps.
In May of 2012 I was invited to reapply for my license and was told it should be no problem. After many, many dollars, letters, calls, and forms, they have reluctantly (even though they encouraged me to reapply) reinstated my ticket and I am now legal to once again join you in the “Friendly Skies.” I am now BFR’d, night current, and a friend of the G1000.
What's Up? - March 2011
Before I Forget …
By Larry Shapiro
In my 8 to 5 world I have some set rules or guidelines I try to follow. Maybe you could call them procedures, either way, if it ain’t broke we don’t fix it and since it still works I’m not going to fix it.
A few weeks ago I got a call from an old friend I met about four years ago. He and his wife popped in looking for their first airplane and they became the receiving end of what you will read below. I can’t be sure their decision was based totally on what I shared with them, but … based on them living on California’s North Coast, one of my favorite places, I mentioned the egregious fog once or twice, or three times, maybe four times.
Aviation Ancestry - March 2011
The Northrop F-89 Scorpion, Part II
By Scott Schwartz
(Scott Schwartz)The decision to buy the F-89 was ultimately made after a USAF board recommended the acquisition of the aircraft during a meeting in September of 1948. Despite being fitted with more powerful engines, the XP-87 was still under-powered. Choosing the F-89 over the Curtiss F-87 marked the end of Curtiss-Wright as an aircraft manufacturer (today, the company builds aerospace components and pumping equipment). Nevertheless, the Air Force was not 100 percent confident in the XF-89, and it wanted alternatives. Accordingly, specifications for another all-weather fighter were issued at around the same time that the decision to buy the F-89 was made. In response to these new requirements, North American altered its F-86A by installing an after-burning engine and more sophisticated radar equipment. The resulting aircraft was initially referred to as the XF-95, but was later designated as the F-86D. Lockheed’s answer was a modified version of its two-seat TF-80C trainer, which eventually became the F-94.
Homebuilders' Workshop - December 2010
Remembering Chorny
By Ed Wischmeyer
“A man’s best friend is his dog,” goes the story, but the famous concluding argument by trial lawyer Senator George Graham Vest was never completely recorded. My dog, Chorny, was my best friend in her canine-like way through turbulent times.
Chorny was a black Lab, and she was given to us at the age of 5 ½ weeks, too young, two months before we got married. She did all the usual puppy things that you’ve heard about other dogs, but she did her own things, too.
Whenever she was in a new environment, Chorny needed to see what was going on, and then she was okay. We bought the 1959 Cessna “Bumblebee” and, with the avionics freshly but partially installed, were preparing to load up the plane and head to Michigan, with the wife (now ex-), a slug of baggage, and the pup. But first we had to have a test flight and make sure that the pup would accept the airplane.
What's Up!?
Let’s start with some thing really nice, again!
July has passed and the sound of fireworks has ceased, but the lingering aroma of dirty diapers is still wafting around my home and office. It takes a little getting use to, but in the end (no pun intended), it was worth it. Two glorious weeks of unanswerable questions, bibs, pacifiers and a mountain of dirty formula bottles and fingerprints on my glasses; this would be the joy of grandparenting. And to think I thought maintenance hangars were dirty… no more.
It’s about time!
Homebuilder's Workshop - March 2010
Snow Blower Follies
By Ed Wischmeyer
Even the natives have been tired of this Iowa winter since two weeks after the first snowfall, and that was what? Thirteen years ago, without a break? But I’m probably repeating myself. Again.
Damn snow.
Here’s a story that has nothing to do with homebuilding, but is still pretty interesting. Out in the garage is a big old Sears snow blower, one-year-old, kind of a big boy’s toy when the snow is only an inch or so deep, but pretty useful for clearing sidewalks when they’re four- or five-inches deep. One of the problems is the thing is so big and clunky that you sort of have a choice between the effort of pushing and shoveling snow and the effort of rasslin’ with the snow blower. But I digress. Then again, this whole section is a digression. But then… never mind.
Aviation Ancestry - February 2010
Aviation Ancestry - January 2010
Powered by an Allison V-12 engine equipped with a single-stage supercharger, the A-36 was essentially an early model P-51 Mustang fitted with two dive brakes on each wing. Other modifications to the airframe included
Homebuilders Workshop - January 2010
What's Up?! - January 2010
Now and Then, A Look Forward to 2010
By Larry Shapiro
Larry ShapiroWhen I look at the calendar and see how much happened in 2009, I guess it was a pretty full year for many of us. Aside from getting a year older, I noticed that my values haven’t changed much, but my perspective on those values are sure changing.
I won’t even attempt to mention all the changes in airplanes and airplane toys. By the time I get an estimate on some panel changes, two more items are announced and we have to start over again. This is not a bad thing, just another way to get rid of those pesky little dollars that are clogging up your pockets.