Flying October 2023

YOUR MISSION IS the first thing you need to identify when buying an airplane. Everyone knows that, but it’s really the truth. Three years ago, 23-year-old Conner McCartney knew what he wanted as his first airplane. It had to be simple, affordable and—most importantly—fun to fly. The airplane also would allow him to be an “hours builder,” as well as provide a working vehicle for his mobile aircraft detailing business. Now, 700 hours later—time acquired in just three years—there’s no doubt his 1976 Cessna 150M was the proper selection.…

I HAVE SPENT the last four years as editor-in-chief excising the arrogant and the esoteric from these pages in order to render them more approachable—to fashion FLYING into what I feel strongly is its purpose, to be the open front door to aviation. One of the phrases I cut often from our prose is the toss-away phrase “of course.” When a writer inserts “of course” into a sentence, it often assumes knowledge that the reader may not have and thus can be read as positioning the author as a holier-than-thou source—when really we are all in this aviation journey together, regardless of whether we’re on Hour 1 or Hour 10,000. Every once in a while, I leave it in—mostly with a couple of contributors who have earned, with their tenure, the…

IN AUGUST, FLYING Media Group acquired AirlineGeeks, a digital media site that offers news, reviews, and content about the airline industry. AirlineGeeks delivers the latest airline and aviation news around the globe in real time, offering a unique vantage point for the “AvGeek.” With more than 25 contributors in its cadre, AirlineGeeks is trafficked by aviation enthusiasts, as well as airline industry executives and analysts. AirlineGeeks is the 20th aviation-related brand that FLYING Media Group has purchased in the past two years in a strategy to expand the world’s leading aviation content platform and serve an audience that spans from light sport to space and vintage to frontier. As a young boy, I fell in love with aviation while watching airliners take off and land near my house in Tennessee. I…

When Nature Calls Re: “When Nature Calls” in Issue 940 by Martha Lunken: Finally, someone writes about an unspoken reality of general aviation flight. Who else but Martha to tell it like it is! FLYING Magazine to me was always about dreaming of that beautiful airplane on the cover. I will show my age by saying I fell in love with a Cessna 414 that graced the front of FLYING many years ago with the usual stunning photography inside. I would, and still do, read the magazine cover to cover, ads and all, but I can never remember reading about anything other than aerodynamic and instructive flying topics or perhaps just this kind of “high flying attitude” in FLYING. Martha has, I would think, finally rounded it all out for…

The first “blind” takeoff and landing—that is, flight without being able to see outside the airplane—was performed on September 24, 1929, by U.S. Army Air Corps pilot Jimmy Doolittle. The aircraft took off from Mitchel Field in Long Island, New York, and Lieutenant Doolittle flew over a set course. Doolittle piloted an Army Air Corps NY-2 Husky, a two-place, open cockpit biplane. For the purpose of the flight, the back cockpit was covered with a fabric hood. Doolittle relied entirely on a directional gyro, artificial horizon, (adjustable) sensitive altimeter, and radio navigation to maintain situational awareness. Lieutenant Benjamin Kelsey was in the front seat acting as a safety pilot. For the duration of the flight, Kelsey kept his arms in the air to show he was not flying the aircraft.…

IF YOU ARE HEADING up to the Finger Lakes region of New York for some hiking, biking, boating, fishing, skiing—or even just to visit a few vineyards for some wine tasting—you might choose to use the Finger Lakes Regional Airport (0G7) in Seneca Falls to launch your adventures when arriving by air. The RNAV (GPS) Runway 1 is a pretty straightforward T-bar GPS approach you might leverage in IFR conditions to get you to the airport—not unusual as the autumn days cool and fog layers into the lakes. A STANDARD T-BAR Many GPS approaches are set up in a general “T” configuration, where there are initial approach fixes 90 degrees to the side of the final approach path. This allows pilots to transition onto the approach from multiple directions and…