Dave Hirschman

Riding along in a Cirrus SR22 as it makes an autonomous approach and landing at the touch of a single button is at once wondrous and depressing.

The Van's RV-15 stands out from its Van's Aircraft siblings on the ramp, but on our first factory flight in the new model had a familiar, "total performance" feel.

Van's Aircraft is updating its decades-old RV–12 to take advantage of forthcoming new standards being developed to allow light sport aircraft to fly in instrument meteorological conditions.

The stylish Risen SuperVeloce would have received plenty of attention regardless of how it got to the big show. But the fact that the sleek, single-engine European ultralight flew to EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, from its home in Italy in 2024 by crossing the Atlantic Ocean made a statement in itself.

An airline crew did a radio double-take when Jon Kotwicki's Carbon Cub UL was cleared to climb to 35,000 feet on October 28.

The scene ahead is so enchanting that it’s easy to overlook the hazards. The lightly rippled blue water at Moosehead Lake laps against the Cessna 208 Caravan’s Wipaire 8750 amphibious floats, the Blackhawk-converted PT6A-140 engine and four-blade Hartzell “Yukon” propeller hum at low idle, and the radio frequency buzzes with activity at a Norman Rockwellesque cove where Maine’s annual International Seaplane Fly-In is set to begin.

The third generation of the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet reduces pilot workload with automated clearances and frequency changes.

Taking off in the Electra EL2 Goldfinch is an act of defiance. Mostly, it’s gravity that’s being defied.

Sunrise over the great pyramids in Egypt. Icebergs on the final approach course in Greenland. Shimmering Northern Lights over Iceland. International ferry pilots see and share these and other sights from their trips around the world—but the reality tends to be much grittier.

Multiple engines, new forms of propulsion, computerized controls, and exotic materials. These changes and many more are allowed under the revolutionary but blandly named “Modernization of Special Airworthiness and Certification” (MOSAIC) rule adopted by the FAA in 2025.

Of all the hidden gems in the newly adopted MOSAIC regulations, the ability to get a repairman certificate that enables experimental amateur-built aircraft owners to perform yearly condition inspections on their own aircraft seems particularly enlightened.