Recent content by Gilbert Buettner

A few years ago, someone landed on Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. Minnesota has to be the friendliest place for seaplane pilots. It took the authorities some time to find the right violation to charge: operating a motor vehicle inside a park not on an approved roadway. (Or something like that...

I spent a year learning to fly in Arizona. Never saw IMC until they sent me to Kansas.

The examiner we often use makes it a point that the object is not touch down as gently as possible, but to do so as slow as possible.

You may be a bit too sensitive, but most of us are white guys and really don't know how that may feel.

Some medevac operations are restricted to VFR conditions.

Funny, I read the title and thought you were asking about an A-10 fighter flying into Kalamazoo (AZO).

I listen. If the tower is busy, I usually do the abbreviated call so the controller can reply when able. If not busy, I do the entire request.

I agree with Ron. I can think of only one tailwheel primary school here in Wisconsin, although there are many places where you can get the endorsement after you have your private certificate. I did mine in one day at Cadillac, Michigan in a J-3. Where I work now, only the chief pilot does...

Are there places in Wisconsin that require an emissions test? Not here in Wausau.

I was in the Air Force stationed in Kansas, and purchased a car and registered it there. Kansas law required me to have a Kansas driver license. I also had a vehicle with a Wisconsin license plate and had a Wisconsin driver license. Home on leave, I went to renew my Wisconsin driver license...

Why not call the testing center and ask them?

Any written record is fine. I like to print endorsements on stickers and find a place, any place, to put them in a logbook. Or do the electronic suggestion above.

No biggie. Get the weather. Call Approach and let them know you have the ATIS. They give you a transponder code, enter it... they say "radar contact" and confirm your distance and altitude. Let them know what you want to do and look for the airport. Let them know when you have it in sight...

True, but I have rented seven different hangars over the years. All were bifold doors, but a couple of them had chains you needed to pull to move a counterweight. As for leaving the hangar door open, sure, I have done that many times. Why not? But these days I am flying airplanes I don't...

There was a guy in Kalamazoo who landed gear up three times. I always wondered why folks would fly with him after the first two.