Trade-A-Plane Blog – Aviation News & Information Piston, Helicopters, Jets & Turbines

Before this week, the last time Art Kimber clambered out of a B-17 Flying Fortress, it was 1945 and he was a 20-year-old being ferried home to Fremont from the European Theater after V-E Day. A B-25 pilot, Kimber and his crew had specialized in blowing up bridges on the mountainous border between Italy and […]

"Are you ready?" they asked. "Oh, yeah!" I said, quasi-confidently as I tried to keep my voice from crackling while the crew outfitted me with a parachute and strapped me into the seat. "Don't touch this lever, that button or that strap," they said. "Unless the pilot tells you to bail -- then pull this, […]

With the ever-changing medical rules in our profession, the Federal Aviation Administration is trying to close down yet another accident avenue before it gets a chance to rear its ugly head.  They know, and so do we, that pilots in general do not eat good, nutritious food and are not necessarily prone to exercise.  Consequently, […]

Five years ago, 14-year-old Savannah Weaver of Millbrook was sitting in the back seat of a little Cessna Aircraft on the runway at Wetumpka Municipal Airport, nervous but eager to take her inaugural air flight. Saturday at that same spot, Weaver was sitting in the front seat of a similar Cessna, no longer nervous but […]