Table of contents for June 2025 in Plane & Pilot

The team here at Plane & Pilot couldn’t be busier. With warm, summer flying upon us, that’s how it should be, right? In the last month, I’ve added four new airplanes to my logbook, and I don’t say that to brag. We are out flying, reviewing, and telling the stories of the airplanes that you’re interested in, whether that’s a Top Cub on floats or the economical light sport Jabiru. With all these new types in such a short period of time, I am being reminded that an airplane is, and always will be, just an airplane. I don’t mean to downplay the luxury we have as pilots to strap on a pair of wings and take off into the wild blue yonder, but I do mean to emphasize that…

If you are one of the 806,940 pilot certificate holders reported by the FAA in its 2023 airman statistics, you will probably be familiar with a DPE, or designated pilot examiner. Over the years the FAA has gradually shed its responsibilities for carrying out most practical tests in favor of independent designees who are appointed at the “pleasure” of the FAA administrator. In normal speech, this means they can appoint and fire them whenever they want for pretty much any or no reason. Many years ago, when the FAA was conducting most of the tests, and a few DPEs were allowed to roam free, they were a popular alternative despite charging for their services. Legend has it that this willingness to pay was primarily due, depending on the storyteller, to…

SUN’N FUN launches a new season of flying, and the annual airshow is always warmly received. Crowds were so large on April 5 in Lakeland, Florida, that organizers had to stop selling tickets—although those who previously bought for the day or had weeklong passes still got in. What is happening with the FAA’s new regulation? Short answer: You may have to resign yourself to a somewhat longer wait. Through 51 years, the Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo has claimed a prominent place on the aviation calendar. On opening day during The first event of the show, we witnessed a meeting of the minds. The two largest member organizations—the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)—sent their top leader to join Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association (LAMA) president…

Piper PA-28-180 Riverside, California/Injuries: 1 Minor NTSB Report: WPR23LA156 The pilot completed the airplane’s engine run-up and carburetor heat function checks with no anomalies noted. He then taxied to the runway and experienced an extended ground delay with the engine running at idle engine power settings. He did not use carburetor heat during the ground delay or during takeoff. During climbout when the aircraft was approximately 1,000 feet above ground level, the engine lost all power. The pilot initiated a forced landing straight head in a field. The aircraft collided with a berm. Postaccident examination of the engine revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunction or failure that would have precluded normal operation, however, the weather conditions at the time of the accident were conducive to the formation of serious carburetor…

It was a letdown of epic proportion, like expecting to unwrap an engagement ring on Christmas morning only to find a pair of earrings in the jewelry box. That’s how it feels when you’ve spent countless hours dreaming about becoming a pilot, only to have those dreams crushed because you cannot afford the flight instruction. But, as they say, where there’s a will, there’s a way. And the good news is that those ways are within reach for most of us who have that dream. It just takes a little creativity, research, perseverance, desire, determination, fortitude, and some timely Plane & Pilot tips to realize your dream of flight. Part Time vs. Full Time If you can dedicate time to your flight training, treating it like a full-time job, then…

ONE OF THE MOST confounding things about a visual illusion is the fact that knowing the illusion, understanding it’s a trick, doesn’t stop us from being fooled. On September 30, 2023, a pilot who crashed in his Cessna 150 was a victim of an issue we all know, but he couldn’t see it. At the start of September he’d flown from home, a New Hampshire residential airpark, down to T.F. Green International Airport (KPVD) in Providence, Rhode Island. There, on September 9, he completed a flight review with a flight instructor who was also a close friend. “Like brothers” is how the flight instructor described their friendship. The CFI told the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) the flight review was “thorough” and commented in the endorsement that the pilot had…

Once upon a time in a faraway land—Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, to be precise—a lone aeronautical engineer designed, constructed, and FAA certified an airplane at his own hometown airport. Long before we needed concepts like MOSAIC (Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification) to break through the bureaucratic aircraft certification process, Jack Gilberti created a viable competitor to the iconic Cessna 172. The Volaire 1050/Aero Commander 100 was born during one of my favorite periods in the history of general aviation. The 1960s was an amazing aviation sweet spot where modest aircraft certification requirements and individual engineers and dreamers like Al Mooney, John Thorp, and Gilberti designed and certified their own designs. The market for new single-engine designs grew every year until, sadly, the insurance liability crisis of the 1980s strangled the market. While…

As I settled back into my seat, I looked over to the first officer. We were about 15 minutes prior to departure, and things were all shaping up to be on time. “Hey, how’s about a preflight checkl-” “Interior and exterior inspections?” “Compl-” “Oxygen masks?” “Chec-” “Checked. CVR?” Chhhhheeeecccckkkkeeeedddddd. I waited a long moment before I replied. You could see tension building as I upset his rapid-fire recitation of the checklist. It was the first flight of our first trip together, and it was apparent that some discussion about pacing our tasks for safety was in order before we even left the gate. My first officer was still fairly new to the company and brought an energy that was both understandable and a threat. One of the biggest misconceptions about…

Not surprisingly, the No. 1 cause of general aviation accidents remains loss of control (LOC). Sadly, there’s an average of about one LOC event a week. However, these preventable accidents can happen anywhere in our aviation world. The most famous of these was Air France Flight 447. It was the evening of June 1, 2009, and Flight 447, a 4-year-old Airbus 330, was serenely cruising just below the equator at FL 360. Suddenly, one of the Airbus’ three redundant pitot tubes clogged with ice crystals. The Airbus flight computers noted the discrepancy in airspeed between the pilot and first officer’s displays, issued a warning to the flight crew, and disengaged the autopilot. Suddenly hand-flying the aircraft on a dark night over the Atlantic Ocean, the plane climbs erratically nearly 2,000…

On a warm summer day in northern Illinois, a young girl sat in the shade under her family Stearman watching a big, smoky biplane perform loops, rolls, and hammerhead turn-arounds at an airshow. She’d grown up around aviation along with her sister and three brothers at the hometown family airport, and she always knew she wanted to fly. And in that moment, Susan Dacy felt a calling: Someday, she’s going to do that. Dacy’s journey with aviation began thanks to her father, John Dacy, who had served as a B-24 crew chief during World War II. Following the end of the war, he turned his local grass strip in Harvard, Illinois, into a full-service airport operation. “The airport was a family thing [for me],” Susan Dacy said. “It was our…