Snowbirds like Arizona in the winter and for good reason. Beautiful skies, pleasantly warm temperatures, and lots of smiling faces. Phoenix and neighboring city, Mesa (just a bit east) are also havens for aviation. Falcon Field is home to a huge variety of aircraft and proved friendly to Light-Sport Aircraft as no less than 18 of them arrived for EAA’s last-of-2005 Sport Pilot Tour event. Thirteen manufacturers showed their models to more than 500 registered visitors (plus quite a few more that didn’t register) on the ramp of the excellent Commemorative Air Force (CAF) facility at Falcon Field. Great EAA volunteers helped pull it off along with a very welcoming CAF organization. Now, EAA is deep into planning for eight more events in the next year, starting in April and running through next February. If one gets within a few hours drive of your home, you’ll find it worthwhile to attend.
Archives for February 2006
30 Years…300 Aircraft
Dan Johnson Celebrates Career Milestone,
Retires Two Columns – Announces New Focus
ST. PAUL, MINN. – Light recreational aircraft expert Dan Johnson celebrated 30 years of writing flight reports with the publication of his February 2006 articles.
Johnson, a leading reviewer of ultralights and light-sport aircraft, has flown and evaluated more than 300 different models of aircraft and written more than 600 flight reports. He has logged more than 5,000 flight hours and holds a commercial certificate with instrument, multi-engine, and flight instructor ratings.
Johnson began his writing career 30 years ago, publishing his first article in the premier February 1976 issue of Glider Rider, now known as Ultralight Flying! From 1978 to 1986, he was publisher of Whole Air magazine, a publication he sold to Western Flyer, now published as General Aviation News, in 1986.
In subsequent years, Johnson returned to producing monthly flight reports for Ultralight Flying! and began contributing regularly to EAA Experimenter, EAA Sport Pilot & Light-Sport Aircraft, Kitplanes, General Aviation News, and Hang Gliding & Paragliding as well as two international magazines, Volare and Fly & Glide.