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As many of you know, Mary and I sold Amelia's Landing Hotel to a fellow from California last fall, and retired. This splendid turn of events has had only one downside thus far: the loss of the HOPS Party sponsor. This Oshkosh party, always held on Wednesday in the North 40, dates back to...

This just in, from my friend Walt Aronow, owner of EXP Aircraft Services in the Dallas area: (As posted on the VAF forum.) According to the FAA website if your system does not meet the GPS perfomance parameters below then you will no longer be able to receive ADS-B services after 2016. So...

Anyone tried it? It seems like the forward luggage compartment might work? (Back story: Mary and I were talking about safety enhancements, on a 2 hour flight today, and how much safer flying is thanks to things like synthetic vision, highway in the sky approaches, on-board weather, etc. We...

For a change, I think this lawsuit is justified. The fire/rescue responders to this crash took an abnormally long time to react. Watching the video of this crash is agonizing. The fire trucks took five full minutes to respond...

Over on VAF, a large contingent of pilots are convinced that ADS-B was designed for, and will inevitably lead to, user's fees. Given the tracking capabilities inherent with the system, this is certainly plausible. What do you think?

Having been recently subjected to all sorts of silly name calling, up to and including being accused of being "unsafe", I thought I would start a nice, noncontroversial Thanksgiving holiday subject like "safety". :rolleyes: In all seriousness, though, if you cut through all the interpersonal...

This one is marginally more interesting than our first attempt. We simply flew over and around our beautiful island, and, other than some captioning, let the video speak for itself. Best if viewed on a big 1080P HD screen! :D

So Wednesday we were flying into Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport (KLBX) for dinner at the Crosswinds Cafe, when we had a relatively close call with a Cirrus driver. Here's the tale: First, let me 'splain that we've got the RV-8A's back cockpit set up with a Nexus 7 tablet Bluetoothed to the...

In another thread, there has been a lively discussion over whether a zoom climb to pattern altitude is as safe (however safe is defined) as the more normal Vy climb out. Here is the plane: An RV-8A with a 180 HP Lycoming O-360, and a Hartzell constant speed prop. Temperature: 91 degrees...

As many of you know, we've recently transitioned to the Van's RV-8A, an aerobatic, tandem seat, 2-place high performance homebuilt. To say this is about as far away from our Cessna/Piper/Beech/Ercoupe spam-can flying as can be wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration. We've put 51 hours on it...

http://www.vansairforce.com/ Linky no worky. Anyone know what's going on?

GA planes are incredibly loud. Is what we are hearing primarily engine noise? Or prop noise? I'm guessing it's engine noise. Given that, is there some reason no one has marketed a plane with real mufflers placed behind the crew cabin, like an automobile? True, this would add weight, on the...

Oh, jeez, I'm a mess. I'm afraid I've fallen head over heels in love with the most beautiful aircraft I've ever seen. Well, technically I haven't actually "seen" it, but -- thanks to the wonders of the internet -- I have gone over 192 high-resolution photos with my RV-8A guru, one rivet at a...

At my last medical, the AME in Corpus Christi determined that I was color blind, and revoked my right to fly at night. This despite my rather obvious ability to discern colors, and the fact that I never had any color deficiency until being tested on his equipment. Today I had my eyes...

...or are many "airplane for sale" ads written by illiterate clueless goobers with no idea how to actually sell an airplane? I love the ones with no engine, prop, or total times, no photos, and no email contact info. WTF are these people thinking? I haven't gone hunting for an airplane in...

I spent a fascinating few hours with an avionics engineer yesterday. He showed me an FAA-generated map of the US where GPS approaches are no longer authorized, because our GPS constellation of satellites has become unreliable. Specifically, the satellites were designed to last ten years. Many...

I have been a pilot for almost 20 years, flying the usual assortment of single engined spam cans. I've owned Pipers and an Ercoupe, and flown rental Cessnas. I've got hours in a fairly wide variety of aircraft, from Cubs to Constellations. But, oh, my goodness, I've never flown anything like...

...And wants to know if we're interested in buying. He heard about us through the grapevine, where I've been spreading the word that we may be interested in the next 12 months. The plane looks every bit as awesome as, well, an RV-8A looks. Which is to say AMAZING. Dang. We're in the...

Since that thread was unceremoniously closed in the middle of my reply, I think we should start another one aimed at the OP. Maybe it will help? The issue (I guess?) is whether PofA should remove threads when they are proven to be bogus. Although I agree with the guy in principle -- yes, I...

In another thread, I marveled at the gymnastics some poor guy was going through to find a ride to Wyoming. The convoluted FAA rules banning private pilots from receiving compensation of any kind for flying are really quite amazing. Which begs the question: Why? What historic event, or train of...