Paul Bertorelli

New York

Editor-in-Chief, AVweb and Editorial Director Aviation Consumer at AVweb

None at Aviation Consumer

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Articles

Guest Blog: An Open Mind And DEI

2 months ago | avweb.com | Paul Bertorelli

I wrote about so many accidents during my 30-plus year aviation journalism career that I can hardly stomach the feeding frenzy of “analysis” following the DCA accident on Wednesday. Least of all President Trump’s distressing press conference not even 12 hours after the accident. Still, if I learned anything during my career, it’s to keep an open mind against my own conclusions and prejudices. And that applies to DEI.
Citing Valve Damage, UND Drops Unleaded Fuel And Returns To 100LL

Nov 8, 2023 | avweb.com | Paul Bertorelli

After an extensive trial, the University of North Dakota’s flight school has dropped Swift UL94 fuel and resumed use of 100LL. The school said ongoing maintenance monitoring of aircraft using UL94—almost exclusively Lycoming-powered Piper Archers and Seminoles—resulted in measurable exhaust valve recession. The school made the switch back to 100LL on October 27. Partly because students were interested in a less-polluting fuel, the school switched to Swift Fuel’s ASTM-spec UL94 in late June.
I Could Never Get Away With This Again

Nov 5, 2023 | avweb.com | Paul Bertorelli

At the end of his legendary career, famed aviation pioneer Jimmy Doolittle titled his autobiography, “I Could Never Be So Lucky Again.” From down here in the flatlands of 21st century general aviation, Doolittle’s Olympian perch is a smudge on the horizon, but I nonetheless have mustered the unmitigated temerity to steal his idea and name my own book, “I Could Never Get Away With This Again.” Or I would if I were writing a book, which I am not because a three-volume history on pork belly...
Deconstructing The Cirrus Hate

Oct 29, 2023 | avweb.com | Paul Bertorelli

Time can make all the difference. Sometimes it’s 30 seconds, or two weeks, or the 623 long days it took NASA to put Apollo back on track after a deadly fire. For my purposes here, it’s three years and a few months. That’s the time that passed between Cirrus just being one of those aviation companies the Chinese bought to an object of outright derision in our news coverage. My source for this conclusion is there for all to see.
Purity of Flight is Overrated

Oct 15, 2023 | avweb.com | Paul Bertorelli

Last week, a friend texted me with a question: He had found a nice restored Cub, but like so many J-3s, it didn’t have an electrical system. It had a C-85 upgrade with the accessory case that can’t be converted to electric start. So hand propping would be the only option. “What do you think of the balance between purity and safety with something like that?,” he wanted to know. After giving this some thought for, oh, maybe 14 nanosceconds, I told him there’s really no balance here.
What It's Like to Race a Hydrogen Balloon Across the U S

Oct 15, 2023 | avweb.com | Paul Bertorelli

Home Multimedia What It’s Like to Race a Hydrogen Balloon Across the U SLast week, 17 hydrogen balloons departed Alburquerque in the Gordon Bennett gas balloon for points east. In this interview, AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli talked to two pilots who flew the race, eventually landing in Georgia just west of Savannah. Noah Forden and Brenda Cowlishaw finished fourth, with a distance of 1382 miles in 65 hours. Note: We grabbed this interview on the fly, so to speak, so the first part is a bit noisy.
What Would You Do If You Had No Fear?

Oct 8, 2023 | avweb.com | Paul Bertorelli

Don’t take counsel of your fears, goes the phrase, variously described as of religious or military origin. Its meaning is don’t be captive of that which frightens you and it is, if nothing else, a double-bladed axe. Fear can be both a healthy thing or a numbing source of paralysis or maybe something between. This came to mind as I was reading some of the unusual number of emails, texts and private messages sent to me after last week’s blog on Richard McSpadden’s fatal accident on Sunday, Oct. 1.
A Final Salute to Spad

Oct 4, 2023 | avweb.com | Paul Bertorelli

Last spring, Richard McSpadden talked me off a ledge of sorts. Now, following his death in a crash on Sunday, I wonder if I’m not back out on it. I had called him to discuss some analytical work I was doing on comparing outcomes in emergency landings but the conversation soon drifted to what I was increasingly seeing as the pointlessness of this kind of work, made more so by the YouTube troll armies that have come to dominate this discussion.
What to Think About SAF

Sep 29, 2023 | avweb.com | Paul Bertorelli

While I was researching this week’s video on aviation’s role in greenhouse gas emissions—and especially SAF—one phrase kept recurring in my overstimulated brain: window dressing, albeit sincere window dressing. On the light side of general aviation, the attitude is that the warming planet thing doesn’t really exist, so let’s not even talk about it. And of those who acknowledge the data and accept the reality—maybe a third to half of our audience–don’t want to talk about it, either.
Decarbonize Aviation? Good Luck to Us

Sep 29, 2023 | avweb.com | Paul Bertorelli

Home Multimedia Decarbonize Aviation? Good Luck to UsWith weather disasters lined up like airliners on final to LaGuardia, news on climate change is a constant. And with aviation the most energy intensive form of mass transportation, it’s in the cross hairs as an emitter of greenhouse gas. In this video, AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli examines the role of electric airplanes and, more importantly, sustainable aviation fuel. Bottom line: Don’t expect miracles.