![Cessna Skycatcher](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/06180053/162.jpg)
NEW ARTICLES
OUR MOST RECENT POSTS
Air Facts was first published in 1938 by Leighton Collins, dedicated to “the development of private air transportation.” It’s a different world now, and it’s a different Air Facts. Relaunched in 2011 as an online journal, Air Facts still champions, educates, informs and entertains pilots worldwide with real-world flying experiences. More…
![Cessna Skycatcher](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/06180053/162.jpg)
![Little John](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/06180118/littlejohn.jpg)
Spelling relief
I was therePeople complain about my lack of …endurance. Turns out, I’m not the only pilot with a bladder of clay. For as long as airplanes have been able to sustain vast distances, they’ve been flown by people who can’t.
![Speed record track](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/06180115/497A-track.jpg)
Bittersweet victory: breaking Dad’s speed record
Speed RecordsWhen Air Facts resurrected the speed records that it started in 1968, it brought back a flood of memories of my Dad’s participation in the program. So when a planned family trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin, was on the calendar, I figured this was a good time to attempt to beat Dad’s record—well at least one of them.
![Avgas](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/06180120/avgas.jpg)
Washington report: the future of 100LL
Washington reportThe future of avgas has been a hot topic for decades, with predictions of "the end of 100LL" coming every few years. But lately there has been a renewed urgency about the subject, especially as environmental groups and the EPA have turned up the heat.
![Grand Canyon](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/06180142/Zingesser-grand-canyon-1.jpg)
Westward Ho
I was thereLawrence Zingesser shares another memorable trip. The plan was to fly to the Napa Valley and in doing so to experience the scenery of the Rocky Mountains up close, to explore the Grand Canyon from a low altitude, and to overfly coastal California en-route. Read how the trip went, including pictures.
![DC-7](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/06180135/DC-7.jpg)
Fire horse
I was thereDid you ever hear about the horses that were used to pull the fire engines in the 19th and early 20th centuries? The author says he became one at Oshkosh in 2010 when he saw a beautiful DC-7 take flight. Read why this one takeoff led to a new adventure for this pilot.
John’s Blog
![PC-12 crash track](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/19161538/PC-12-crash-track-495x400.jpg)
Ignore the YouTube crash detectives—it’s usually pilot error
John's blogWhen a high performance airplane crashes in IMC, the self-proclaimed experts on social media quickly spin elaborate theories about autopilot failure, in-flight icing, structural failure, carbon monoxide poisoning, or some other incredibly rare cause. It makes for good entertainment (“hit that subscribe button!”) but the reality is usually much less interesting and much more depressing.
![Flight instruction](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/09101641/dual-instruction-copy-495x400.jpg)
Why learning to fly can be good for your mental health
John's blogAmericans seem to be especially gloomy right now, according to a popular book and a report from the US Surgeon General. There are no miracle cures, but becoming a pilot can provide many of the positive experiences these experts recommend. No, I’m not suggesting the federal government mandate flight training to make American teenagers happy, but consider the following.
![Airline pilot hiring by month](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/05180107/Airline-pilot-hiring-2014-to-2024-495x400.jpg)
What a difference a decade makes: the GA boom in statistics
John's blogGeneral aviation is growing. That simple statement would have been unremarkable to a pilot in the 1960s or 1970s, as surprising as saying the sun rose in the east that day. But for anyone who learned to fly after about 1990, and especially between 2008 and 2016, it’s a shocking thing to admit. Yet that is exactly what is happening right now, as data from a wide variety of sources show.
I Can’t Believe I Did That
![Citabria on grass runway](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/06174505/Citabria-takeoff-on-grass.jpg)
The time when I almost landed short
I Can't Believe I Did ThatThe plane was perhaps 50 feet above the ground, but at least there was a smooth gravel under-run and the wheel pants were off. I had just enough energy to flare with a soft touchdown. I prepared myself for landing short. What an embarrassing end to the second leg of my Private pilot solo long cross-country.
![airplane in grass](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/06101838/172-in-grass-1-495x400.jpg)
Centerline, centerline, centerline
I Can't Believe I Did ThatThe gusting wind from the east returns, pushing the aircraft toward the right side of the runway. In a matter of a few seconds, the grass infield fills my windshield. I didn’t get the thumb into the wind and I didn’t immediately get on the left rudder pedal to steer us back to the centerline. Years of training ignored in an instant which means we are now headed into the infield.
![](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/29112829/warren-anderson-extra-495x400.jpg)
A dead stick landing and a chance encouter with Hal Shevers
I Can't Believe I Did ThatAt about 1,500 feet hawking the wind sock to determine my landing runway. The UNICOM frequency was quiet and I saw no other planes in the pattern. I turned away to re-enter on a 45 degree downwind. As I banked back to the field came a startling assault of silence. The engine quit—politely and with no shudder—it simply stopped running. I was a glider.
Opinion
![New Cessna 172](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/06180355/new-172-2.jpg)
So maybe there was a real purpose in flying that day
OpinionAfter I was current again and reasonably proficient, the 16-year-old son of some friends asked if he could go up with me. I said he could, but only if his parents were very clear as to my experience, the record of the flying club, the kind of plane we’d be flying, Vx, Vy, everything. They gave an enthusiastic thumbs up and we had a great flight.
![Windsock](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/06155020/wind_sock_at_airport_by_geekophelia-dchvg8b.jpg)
Managing the wind
OpinionThose little hills made for fiendish turbulence down low. The lower I got, the worse it became. I’m stubborn and I kept thinking it’s just 20 knots, and I’m a CFI (beating chest). Until I was porpoising down the runway like a first-time student. I went around the pattern a few times but finally got a clue and decided to go elsewhere.
![V-tail Bonanza](https://media.airfactsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/06180320/V35B-bonanza.jpg)
Burning Man for Builders
OpinionSociety will always tell us there’s no such thing as safe enough. We will add more and more sensors, cameras and lidar to things that drive themselves, while news headlines rage of man failing machine, machine failing man. We put in airbags and then a switch to deactivate them.
More Articles
Recent Posts
Email newsletter
Sign up for our free email newsletter, packed with tips, tricks and news for pilots.
Write for us!
Did you know that most of the articles at Air Facts are written by readers like you? You do not have to be Richard Collins or Ernest Gann – simply a GA pilot with a story you’d share with friends sitting in the hangar.