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Perspectives
Spring Is In The Air: Happy Flying
I can recall being a new aviator and going from relatively new airplanes at a local Cessna pilot center to the aging, shall-we-say “well worn” aircraft of a smaller flight school just a few buildings up the taxiway.
Although I was undergoing my instrument training, I felt as though I were getting a lesson in economics. In any given airplane, half of the instruments didn't work. My instructor and I began scheduling lessons around the working equipment each plane. If we complained than instrument wasn't working properly, the next lesson we would find that instrument ripped out of the airplane with a gaping hole in the panel.
It was at about that time in my life that I learned that people would actually lie to you about safety in order to not lose income. One flight school owner told me the fuel pump in a low-wing airplane wasn't really required equipment because you only needed it for take-offs and landings.
Another aircraft owner told me it was OK to fly with a quarter-sized patch of cord showing through a tire because he needed me to bring the airplane back for another rental.
Both of those issues could have gotten me killed given the right circumstances, and so I’ve learned over the years to make my own decisions about what's safe and what is not.
In this month’s New Aviator column, we tackle this issue of older airplanes and provide tips that new pilots can use to make sure the airplanes they fly are safe.
This month we also explore some great adventure travel destinations for the adrenaline junkies in the crowd who feel flying to a vacation destination is just appetizer to a week of thrills and pushing your personal envelope.
And speaking of pushing your personal envelope, if you stop by the Columbia static display at Sun 'n Fun in April, you can get a souvenir cover of Aviator's Guide with your picture taken in front of the hot new Columbia 400.
Spring is in the air, the air show season has begun, and it's a great time to be
an aviator. We'll see you at Sun 'n Fun.
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