Max Trescott on General Aviation

Wish list for AOPA’s new President Craig Fuller

Apparently it will be official tomorrow. Phil Boyer is retiring and Craig L. Fuller will be the next President of AOPA. A hearty congratulations to them both. Before I get to my wish list for Craig and AOPA, let me talk a little about this important change and the great industry in which many of us are privileged to work.

In the 69 year history of AOPA, there have been only three Presidents, which speaks to the remarkable stability of the organization. Phil started in early 1991, so it will have been about an 18 year run for him, assuming he serves through the end of this year. When I say "run" I mean it. AOPA is the point of the spear for the General Aviation industry, and no job is more important than the President’s. Being AOPA President means being constantly on the run, and Phil’s earned a reputation as a tireless advocate for General Aviation.

As to the greatness of this industry, one needs only to look to...

Cirrus SR22 Perspective and Ladies Watches

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of spending a lot of time in a Cirrus SR22 Perspective aircraft. I enjoyed checking out all of the features and noting the differences between this glass cockpit (which is similar to the Garmin G1000) and comparable aircraft, such as the Cessna 400. We talked previously about some of the new features of the Perspective, and I’ll go into even more detail soon.

Call me crazy, but as fun as airplanes are, I always find the people in aviation even more interesting. That was true with Juice Welch, the demo pilot who brought the airplane up to Palo Alto, CA from southern California. Interestingly, I’d previously read about Juice...

Blue Skies for GA and the ICON A5 Light Sport Aircraft

Humans are notoriously bad in forecasting the future. We tend to simply extend recent trend lines in whatever direction they’re currently headed, whether that be up or down. So it’s not surprising that there’s been some doom and gloom associated with the recent spike in gas prices and the twenty-five year decline in the pilot population. While I’d be nuts to predict a drop in gas prices (these have happened, but don’t hold your breath this time) I do see some signposts that suggest the General Aviation skies are not as cloudy and gloomy as some might suggest (I've included a list at the end of this post).

One of those signs arrived over my fax machine two days ago. Mixed in with the offers for health insurance and bogus stock alerts that spam my fax machine was...