Ben Sclair

Lakewood

Owner and Publisher at General Aviation News

Dad + Husband + Publisher + Pilot

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Articles

Music or noise? - General Aviation News

3 weeks ago | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Sclair

On May 20, 2025, as my day was just getting started, I heard a general aviation aircraft circling overhead. Where I live, in Lakewood, Washington, that’s not very common. Joint Base Lewis-McChord includes McChord Field (KTCM) and Gray Army Airfield (KGRF) to the east and south of our home. And we’re close to the south end of Tacoma Narrows’ (KTIW) airspace. I’m used to occasionally hearing helicopters and C-17s from my home, but rarely piston-powered aircraft.
Air Plains Services purchases Petersen Aviation — General Aviation News

2 months ago | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Sclair

WELLINGTON, Kansas — Air Plains Services has purchased Petersen Aviation from founder Todd Petersen. Petersen Aviation has specialized in auto gas STCs since 1983. More than 39,000 aircraft use a Petersen Auto Fuel STC to burn ethanol-free auto gas in their aircraft. The STC library covers roughly 100 airframes, 35 engines, and a water/methanol anti-detonation injection (ADI) STC, according to company officials.
A new lease on life for checklists — General Aviation News

2 months ago | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Sclair

Barry Munsterteiger began flight training in 2021 in a Cessna 172M that included a CheckMate checklist. “One day during my training I arrived to fly and the checklist that I had normally been using was missing from the airplane,” Barry said. “I chose not to fly that day as I felt it was a critical item at my stage of training. That evening I bought my own CheckMate Cessna 172M checklist via their Amazon storefront.”Soon enough Barry bought a Cessna 182P and a CheckMate checklist for that aircraft.
Different paths to the cockpit — General Aviation News

Mar 26, 2025 | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Sclair

Rachel Skirvin and Sarah Roark didn’t start their working lives in aviation, but made bold pivots once they found their passion. Their journeys prove aviation can be a second career — even for those from entirely different fields. And together, as the Felts Field Sky Queens, they’re gearing up for the 2025 Air Race Classic. Rachel spent over a decade remotely managing critical access and rural healthcare facilities nationwide. But she found something was missing.
Here we go…again — General Aviation News

Mar 13, 2025 | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Sclair

A recent story in the FAA’s Safety Briefing newsletter announced the agency’s new Remote Tower (RT) testing facility. Haven’t we been down the RT path before? Yes.
Internalize the lesson — General Aviation News

Feb 26, 2025 | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Sclair

How do you best learn? Positive reinforcement? Admonishment for mistakes made? Writing and re-writing the lessons learned? Something else? And when you learn something, how do you internalize that lesson? For Blain Stumpf, his lesson came “after a solo cross country.” His instructor “had some scolding for me,” Blain wrote to me in an email. So, Blain’s lesson came from admonishment of a mistake. “I won’t go into details,” wrote Blain.
Do they really want to hear from us? — General Aviation News

Feb 19, 2025 | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Sclair

The Feb. 13, 2025, edition of the eHotline newsletter from the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) included two news stories about FAA feedback. The first, “Final Piper Rudder AD Rejects Most Community Input,” is about FAA Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2025-02-11. “Numerous commenters opposed the AD when it was proposed last year, including EAA and its Vintage Aircraft Association (VAA) division,” EAA officials reported on the association’s website.
Hydrogen-electric powered Bonanza in development — General Aviation News

Feb 14, 2025 | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Sclair

Does the idea of swapping the Continental in your Bonanza for a hydrogen-electric propulsion set-up interest you? If so, you might want to take a look at Stralis. Founded in Australia in 2021, Stralis seeks to decarbonize aviation. To achieve this goal, Stralis is developing hydrogen-electric propulsion (HEP) systems it claims can fly 10 times farther than battery-electric alternatives and operate at 50% lower costs compared to fossil fuel-powered aircraft.
What’s up with unpaved field certification? — General Aviation News

Jan 24, 2025 | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Sclair

In August 2024, Piper Aircraft announced the M700 Fury’s certification for unpaved field operations. My first thought? What’s that about? As if reading my mind, commenter Are Cee wrote, “So, what is involved in ‘upaved field’ certification? Is that an actual certification, as in without it you’re illegal to land on, say, Triple Tree? Or is it a marketing gimmick? Not being snarky, I am truly curious.”Here’s the short version:What’s involved? Quite a bit. Keep reading. Actual certification? Yes.
FAA recommends AOA for all aircraft — General Aviation News

Jan 23, 2025 | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Sclair

The FAA recommends owners of all airplanes install and calibrate an Angle of Attack (AOA) alerting system and receive training on its use. “Increasing awareness of the benefits of these alerting systems may reduce the risk for loss-of-control (LOC) incidents and accidents,” is noted in the introduction of Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) 2024-07 — STALL WARNING SYSTEM, Angle of Attack Alerting Systems — issued on Dec. 26, 2024.