Author Archives: David Megginson

N22309: an unlucky number

Posted on April 8, 2008 by David Megginson

My U.S.-manufactured 1979 Piper Warrior II was originally registered as N22309, until it was imported into Alberta, Canada in 1988 and reregistered as C-FBJO. It wasn’t the only plane to use that registration number. The first N22309 that I can … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 5 Comments

Cost of owning a plane in 2007

Posted on April 7, 2008 by David Megginson

Here’s what it cost to own and operate a 1979 Piper Warrior II in Ottawa, Canada in 2007 with 80 hours air time (a bit more flight time, of course). Since the US and Canadian dollars are basically at par … Continue reading →

Tagged , | 10 Comments

Dead airspeed indicator

Posted on March 28, 2008 by David Megginson

The incident I flew through some light snow showers on my way to Kingston with my daughter this morning, so I turned on the pitot heat just before joining the circuit to make sure the pitot blade was clear. At … Continue reading →

Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

OurAirports: terrain view

Posted on February 18, 2008 by David Megginson

A couple of months ago, Google Maps quietly added a Terrain layer to their maps. I’ve enabled that in OurAirports now, so that you can get at least a rough idea of the terrain around an airport (or in a … Continue reading →

Tagged , | 3 Comments

Data wants to be free

Posted on February 2, 2008 by David Megginson

I’ve finally gotten around to adding free data downloads to OurAirports. You can now download nightly CSV-formatted data dumps of all the airports, countries, and regions in OurAirports at http://www.ourairports.com/data/ These will open with most spreadsheet and database programs (make … Continue reading →

Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Gimli glider's last Air Canada flight

Posted on January 24, 2008 by David Megginson

You’ve probably all seen this already, but today the Gimli Glider takes its last flight as an Air Canada aircraft, almost 25 years after its famous power-off glide to a landing in Gimli, Manitoba. The original pilots and some of … Continue reading →

Tagged | 1 Comment

It's the runways, stupid

Posted on January 21, 2008 by David Megginson

Here’s a statement from the U.S. Air Transport Association (ATA) — the airlines’ lobby group — about variable landing fees for U.S. airports (e.g. higher at peak times, lower other times): “Unfortunately, [the policy] does nothing to fix the primary … Continue reading →

Tagged , | 4 Comments

OurAirports: heliports and floatplane bases

Posted on January 17, 2008 by David Megginson

OurAirports now includes heliports and floatplane bases as well as fixed-wing airports: in the last 24 hours I’ve added 828 floatplane bases and 5,911 heliports, all from Canada and the U.S. (and a couple of U.S. dependencies like Guam). Here’s … Continue reading →

Tagged , | 3 Comments

Add local places to airports

Posted on January 12, 2008 by David Megginson

Any logged-in member can now add placemarks to the map for local spots at an airport (FBOs, visitor parking, fuel, restaurant, customs, or whatever), and more importantly, anyone — even Anonymous Flyers — can comment on those spots. Take a … Continue reading →

Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Global orgasm for peace

Posted on December 21, 2007 by David Megginson

Pilots often already have their watches set to UTC, so this should be easy. At the exact minute of the winter solstice tonight, at 06:08 UTC, is the second annual Global Orgasm for Peace To effect positive change in the … Continue reading →

Tagged | Comments Off on Global orgasm for peace