Innehållsförteckning för August 2025 från Flying

IF I were to sketch my life in 2025, it might resemble an aerobatics sequence card—an Aresti diagram filled with loops, rolls, and spins. Just as I throttled up for a clean vertical climb, a hard kick of rudder threw me into a hammerhead. January 1 was a perfect takeoff—a morning hike followed by an afternoon at the beach with my daughter and our golden retriever. Then came January 7. A devastating fire swept through my community of Pacific Palisades, California, destroying nearly 7,000 structures—homes, schools, businesses, almost everything. Even miles away at Santa Monica Airport (KSMO), airplanes tucked safely in hangars were coated in ash that had crept through every gap. What followed were many new beginnings. Schools were relocated. Daily routines were upended overnight. Everyone displaced by the…

THE FAA’S Innovate28 blueprint forecasts 2028 as the year electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxis reach operational scale in major U.S. cities, such as Los Angeles. The City of Angels is slated to host the 2028 Olympic Games that summer. If scale is the goal, there are few events grander than the Olympics. “It’s the biggest show you could ever imagine, and it just so happens to be in the best city in America for this type of service,” Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer Aviation, told FLYING at the Paris Air Show in June. “LA has over 5 million daily trips that go less than 20 miles and take over an hour.” Archer, the developer of the four-passenger Midnight air taxi, believes it can seize the…

THE HISTORICAL TRIANGLE OF VIRGINIA THE HISTORIC TRIANGLE of Virginia consists of Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown. These three settlements are some of America’s most historically significant locations, and all date back to the nation’s infancy in the 1600s. Often referenced together, Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown each balance colonial history with modern appeal and offer their own unique identity with memorable things to do. The area’s biggest allure for visitors is its multicentury history but is worthy of visiting for other reasons as well—including acclaimed restaurants, arts and culture events, aviation museums, and more. Jamestown dates to 1607 and was North America’s first permanent English settlement. One of the historic site’s most appealing attractions is the archaeological work being completed at James Fort, where the colony first stood. Visitors to Jamestowne,…

THE REASON doesn’t really matter. Hopefully, nothing’s on fire, and the weather, at least where you are, is flyable without much drama. But you need to land soon—before reaching your destination. You mostly didn’t anticipate this need, except to know ahead of time that it’s the rare flight that’s completed exactly as planned. No flight plan survives the second handoff. Yet, you didn’t figure in these specific circumstances, and now you need to divert. Where to go, and what will you find when you get there? As important, will your divert field have the services you may need? Like a mechanic or 24-hour fuel? Is there food or a hotel nearby? How will you get to civilization once you land? These are just some of the thoughts that may cross…

WHEN YOU attend an aviation trade show like the Women in Aviation International conference in Denver back in March, you will find yourself surrounded by people dressed in dark suits seeking pilot jobs. Based on discussions with many of these applicants, it appears the days of being hired with “1,500 hours and a pulse” are over, as the airlines are being more selective. If history repeats itself—as it often does in the aviation industry—when airline hiring slows, so does the hiring of instructors at flight schools. And it is there where most aspiring pilots build their experience. Get ready to reach for that first rung on the corporate ladder. I’s Have It If you want to increase your chances of being hired at a flight school, the more instructor ratings…

A DOOR pops open just after takeoff. It’s annoying, sure—but deadly? It shouldn’t be. Yet general aviation pilots continue to crash and die because of how they react to something as simple as an unlatched door. In just the first few months of 2025, we’ve had four serious crashes in the U.S. where a pilot experienced a door or baggage door opening after takeoff and didn’t make it back. Three of the four crashes were fatal, and the fourth one resulted in burn injuries. So, while it’s easy to dismiss these kinds of accidents, they’re important because they continue to kill. The most recent of the four occurred on Saturday, May 17. At about 10 a.m., a B55 Baron (N4321Z) took off from Runway 30R at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport…

This rare 1931 Buhl Bull Pup is one of only two still in flying condition, out of approximately 150 originally produced. Both surviving aircraft were restored by Ron Johnson of Rockford, Illinois. This particular one—serial number 142—is powered by a Szekely SR-3 3-cylinder engine and delivers a “staggering” 45 hp. If you look closely, you’ll notice a cable wrapped around the cylinders—a safety feature added because the cylinders had a reputation for separating in flight. In this photo, the Pup is piloted by Lorraine Morris of C77, Poplar Grove, Illinois, which is also where the aircraft is based.…

NOW ONTO the Microsoft Flight Simulator lineup. The gold standard of all 737s comes from Precision Manuals Development Group (PMDG). PMDG has been in the game a long time, with all flight simmers likely having heard of it. Starting way back the 1990s, Robert Randazzo has built the top-end payware company based upon incredible research and access to the Boeing aircraft it has simulated over the years. The Boeing 747-400, 777, and 737 are the company’s core focus, with each PMDG model produced each taking years to be released once announced. Add-on updates and improvements come faster, however. Just recently, the 777-200 was released for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (MSFS2024) as the first PMDG product to be fully developed just for this simulation version. The 737 Next Gen (NG) product…

ON A January morning at Provo, Utah, an Embraer Phenom 300 was towed out of its heated hangar onto a ramp whitened by falling snow. It was fueled, and the pilot and three passengers boarded. It taxied to the runway and, some 40 minutes after it had emerged from the hangar, the Phenom began its takeoff roll. It rotated, began to climb, then rolled to the left. The wing struck the runway, pulling the airplane sideways. The fuselage came to rest largely intact, only its left front portion crushed. There was no fire. All of the passengers survived the crash—only the pilot died. The airplane was equipped with a flight data recorder. Its histories of speed, angle of attack, and bank angle seemed to confirm what National Transportation Safety Board…

I’M seated in “Le Club,” Air France’s Concorde Lounge at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (LFPG). It’s May 2000, and across from me, outside a panoramic window, Concorde waits in silhouette—poised, sleek, unreal. Check-in was a breeze. The lounge, all blond wood, buttery leather, Badoit and bubbly, exudes curated calm. From my corner, I watch her—a stunning, slender swan with a droop nose, ready to jet us to John F. Kennedy International Airport (KJFK) in New York. A CEO across from me drops a line about his $8 million tax bill. Nearby, Si Newhouse clutches proofs for what might be next week’s The New Yorker. No one blinks. Newhouse doesn’t notice me not noticing him. This is the Concorde Lounge, after all—eavesdropping and star sighting is, perhaps, part of the…

FOR BUYERS shopping the used composite single market, often overlooked is the Columbia/Cessna series. These niche aircraft have modern styling, an exceptionally good cockpit layout, and they go fast. But like all used composite aircraft, look hard at any repairs made to the structure, and consider the eye-widening cost for replacing the big Continental engine. Kitplane DNA The Columbia/Cessna models started life around the year 2000 as the Lancair Columbia 300, which was a certified model from Lancair. That created somewhat of an identity crisis because Lancair was well known for its experimental kitplanes in the day. Equipped with a normally aspirated 310 hp Continental IO-550N powerplant, the earliest Columbia 300 (officially a model LC40) had a list price somewhere around $340,000. Today, the current Aircraft Bluebook puts the same…

BARELY 10 minutes into the departure from Toronto Pearson International Airport (CYYZ) on December 20, 2016, El Al Flight 30 experienced an engine failure during its initial climbout at approximately 13,000 feet. The B-767-300 was en route to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport (LLBG) with 224 passengers and crew on board—a scheduled 10-hour flight. Although the event had a successful conclusion, circumstances in the cockpit could have resulted in a different outcome. Why? The short answer is checklist procedure challenges. Having spent 12 years flying the B-767/757 as a captain, I find it to be a fascinating story in cockpit management—some good, some bad. For as much as airline pilots train for engine emergencies, it would seem that this mostly experienced crew had some missteps. Indeed, any one of us…

It wasan easy call. Whenever someone asked which piston-powered airplane would be the first to feature Garmin’s Emergency Autoland as standard, my answer was always the Cirrus SR series. Having flown every version of the SR20 and SR22 since the late 1990s, one thing is clear: Cirrus has been on a quest to make these airplanes incrementally better with every update. And no matter what you think of the current airplane’s eye-watering price tag, it’s tough to argue that the latest 2025 SR G7+ isn’t the best version yet. With Garmin’s Autoland (Cirrus calls it Safe Return), smarter avionics that make it nearly impossible to commit a runway incursion or run out of fuel, plus redesigned interior appointments and ergonomics that cater to pilots and passengers, buyers get bragging rights…

WHEN MY wife, Dawn, and I purchased our airstrip property in 2019, we were still living on a 42-foot sailboat and cruising the Caribbean. We weren’t planning on buying land that summer. We changed those plans—and once again completely reordered our lives—because we had stumbled across the most perfect slice of airplane heaven near Seattle. While out sailing, we’d been discussing and dreaming what our return to land life would look like and had come to a few conclusions: It would involve a return to general aviation; it would be in the Pacific Northwest; we’d buy a few acres somewhere rural and peaceful; and there we would build our ideal home base for adventures by land, sea, and air. Finding the perfect property to do all this before we really started looking…

SINCE RETIRING, I’ve heard little or nothing from pilot friends about choosing to meet the 61.56 mandatory twoyear flight review by enrolling in the FAA’s FAASTeam program. When I investigated, it seemed obvious that this route is more complicated—certainly more than when the WINGS program began in 1996. Here’s the process: > Go to the official website of the FAASTeam (www.FAASafety.gov). > Click on the "Create an Account" link. > Enter and confirm your email, providing your email address twice for confirmation. > Under “Airman Certificate,” select "Yes" if you hold a current airman certificate. > Enter your last name and certificate number. > Choose and answer your security questions. > Check your email for a temporary password. > Log back in to FAASafety.gov. using the temporary password, then change…

SOMEHOW I had gotten to 2025 without having heard of a comedian named Nathan Fielder, but my ignorance was not destined to last. “You have to watch The Rehearsal,” one person after another said to me. “It’s about aviation!” Finally someone sat me down to watch the first couple of episodes of the HBO docu-comedy series, and a week later someone else invited me to see the seventh and final episode. So, to be clear, I did not see the whole season, just three-sevenths of it. Still, I got the drift, and frankly Fielder’s shtick gets a little wearing, like Sacha Baron Cohen’s and Larry David’s, and after a while I need some fresh air. So maybe three-sevenths was about the right amount. The premise of the show is that…

FOREFLIGHT WEB is available to all active ForeFlight users. Log in to plan.foreflight.com with your existing Fore-Flight credentials to plan flights and manage your account from a computer. Changes will sync across all devices you’re signed into. Here are some tips to get the most out of ForeFlight Web: Route and flight planning: Plan and file flights using the same tools as ForeFlight Mobile, but with a keyboard, mouse, and larger screen. Maps: Select Maps from the sidebar to begin planning with familiar, powerful tools like rubberbanding, Route Advisor, and more. Routes created in ForeFlight Web do not automatically sync to other devices and need to be loaded from the Recent Routes list in ForeFlight Mobile. My Flights: Click My Flights from the sidebar, then select Add New to start planning,…