Glass planes come in many sizes. The Diamond DA20 is a wonderfully efficient and capable 2 place aircraft that cruises at over 130 knots sipping less than 6 gallons an hour. It is a great primary trainer, time builder and fun flying personal aircraft.

Loren French of Eagle Colorado purchased his DA20 through John Armstrong our GlassPilot publisher and filmed this great video of his pick up and flight from Maryland to his home base in Colorado over 1300 nautical miles.

You’ll see from the video the DA20 is quite the performer. Congratulations Loren! Enjoy your new plane!

One benefit of being in the general aviation aircraft sales business is it seems I have the job every one wants. Last fall I had the chance to bring my readers the experience of flying the KC135 tanker because I met the pilot and he wanted to learn more about what I do so he invited me along! It was an awesome experience that resulted in amazing pictures from the cockpit and refueling station.

Well folks, today we have another thrilling experience for you…a flight in a Marine Corp Harrier! It all started at Sun n Fun when a young Marine pilot offered a tour… I pulled out my calendar and booked it right then! Read the rest of this entry »

I’m starting to wonder if it’s me these tornadoes are chasing. I reported on the the Sun N Fun tornado and then after a great, busy, sunny, productive couple of days at the event I headed to my home town of Raleigh, NC aka The City of Oaks. Then two weeks later we got our own dose of tornadoes.

John Fielding, a flying friend from Virginia called me on that Saturday and said, “Are you at home in Raleigh? If so, get in the closet!” Sure enough the dark red on the radar was coming our way. We watched as it grazed past our home to the East unfortunately causing some significant damage along its path. It made it’s way up the East side of Raleigh and on to Louisburg where my friend, Steve Merritt, manages the Triangle North Airport (KLHZ).

After the storm passed, the sky cleared to bright blue without a cloud in the sky. I took to the skies in a great Husky I just listed for sale and flew low and slow to take pictures of the path. Of course the Husky is the perfect plane for the mission! The airport faired well but a few hangar doors caused damage on one of my customer’s aircraft and a poor Tomahawk flew off its tie down and sailed into another plane. The weather is great now and we are looking forward to a great flying season putting all this behind us!  Check out my aerial pictures…
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By now everyone has heard about the tornado that whipped through Sun N Fun 2011 on March 31st damaging over 40 aircraft, flooding the grounds and injuring 7 people. Most news outlets focused on the damage but what happened next that is the truly remarkable story. I went the next day expecting the worst and for the rest of the show to either be scrubbed or painfully slow and unattended. Boy, was I surprised. The Sun N Fun crew had done a fantastic job getting the place back into shape over night and the next several days were beautiful weather, crowds came out and it was very busy and successful event! Check out our video update from the next day, April 1st, 2011.