WHAT’S IN YOUR AIR POCKET ?
2023-03-22
Peter Garrison – My mother, who would fortify herself for any aerial voyage with either Miltown or Chivas Regal, would later revisit with perverse relish each “air pocket” the plane had encountered. I’M NOT SURE WHAT she believed an air pocket consisted of, but I suppose it was something likeRead More →
Register Review
2023-03-16
January 2023 – RAY WATTS The amendments for January 2023 are exciting for our airline industry. FLYSAFAIR HAS REGISTERED two Boeing 737-800s this month. One Airbus A320 has been returned to SAA from storage in Ljubljana and another Boeing 737-800 is coming back onto the register. This one is strangeRead More →
HOW LONG DO SLINGS LAST?
2023-02-27
GERHARD VAN EEDEN – THE OWNER OF MADIBA BAY SCHOOL OF FLIGHT IN PORT ELIZABETH. “It’s not going to last. You know that, right?” “Yes, well I guess we’ll see.” That was how conversations went when I arrived in Port Elizabeth with our first Sling in December of 2012. WELL,Read More →
REGISTER REVIEW
2023-02-03
RAY WATTS – NOVEMBER/DECEMBER COMPLIMATION NOVEMBER 2022 – This month’s amendments show a whole variety of aircraft movements. ON THE TCA SIDE there are seven new registrations – four fixed wing, two helicopters and a glider. Very interesting is the Airbus A340-600 ZS-MFC. This one is twenty years old andRead More →
FAA PUBLISHES DRAFT VTOL RULES
2023-01-09
THE FAA HAS PUBLISHED draft rules for all new makes and models offering point-to-point air taxi services outside the traditional aeronautical ecosystem. This has been a daunting regulatory challenge for the administration, adding entirely new types of traditional fixed and rotary-wing aircraft. This change will only be the first bitRead More →
LOOKING BACK AT TURNBACKS
2022-12-14
PETER GARRISON – I once wrote an article about a high-time Bonanza pilot who tried to return to the runway after a loss of power after takeoff. As too commonly happens in such cases, he stalled and crashed. MUCH OF MY DISCUSSION centred on a paper about “turnbacks,” as theseRead More →
2022 Winners and losers
2022-12-05
Guy Leitch – It has been a surprisingly full year in aviation. Both in the humble corridors of general aviation and at the airline industry level. General Aviation’s Winners and Losers. Big winners have been general aviation aircraft owners. One of the surprises for me has been the huge increaseRead More →
POSITION REPORT
2022-12-02
DECEMBER 2022 – GUY LEITCH ADVERTISING REVENUES ARE THE LIFEBLOOD. Publications such as this and post-Covid, have been slow to recover. This has accelerated the natural move away from print and into the digital-only space. There have been unexpected benefits – most notably the circulation of SA Flyer has increasedRead More →
HUGH’S FIRST FLIGHT – EVER
2022-11-30
Hugh Pryor – Part One. Some of my friends say that I am a slow reader and a late developer. Maybe they are right, but I find that when I read something, I tend to remember it better than some of the high-speed readers of my acquaintance do, and when,Read More →