Site Index:

General Aviation

Piper in flight! Ron is a licensed private pilot with over 800 hours as pilot in command. He owns a Piper Cherokee with his friend, James Benningfield. The aircraft is a model PA28-180C, built in 1968. Its registration number is N4709L.

If you are interested in going on a flight with Ron in his Cherokee, please fill out this Request Form and submit it for consideration. If you are selected, there is no cost for this introductory flight around the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

You can learn more about aviation by visiting the Web sites mentioned below.

Listen to live air traffic control conversations between air traffic controllers and pilots of aircraft arriving and departing the Dallas/Fort Worth area. To listen you will need the RealPlayer from RealNetworks, and at least a 14.4Kbps connection to the Internet.

The

Web site is a good source for aviation weather and general pilot information.

FlightView provides real-time tracking of commercial flights. Find out where that plane is now! TrackAFlight provides the same service.

Curious about what it takes to learn to fly a plane? Want to learn more about what makes airplanes fly?

Ready to test your aviation knowledge? You can take the same FAA written exams that Private and Instrument pilots must pass. Yes, Ron scored over 90% on both his private and instrument pilot exams!

Exam-O-Grams are questions and answers with a detailed explanation published by the FAA to help pilots refresh their knowledge of important aeronautical knowledge.

Get a safety tip from Rod Machado's page.

Check on airport flight delays at the FAA's Air Traffic Control System Web site.

Piper Aircraft Corporation in Vero Beach, Florida, manufactured Ron's plane.

The Cherokee Pilots’ Association is a group of owners of Piper Cherokee aircraft.

Where did Ron learn to fly? At Purdue University's school of Aviation Technology! His flight instructor was Mitch Grundman, now the Chief Flight Instructor at Purdue.

A useful search engine for aviation related topics is available at AeroSeek.com.

Aviation quotations, including several from the space program! Some audio clips are also available.

Ron is a member of the Airline Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA).

The Federal Aviation Administration regulates and serves to maintain aviation safety in the United States.

The is a great deal of information on aviation safety on the Internet. Visit these sites to find out more:

	FAA Office of System Safety
	National Transportation Safety Board
	Aviation Safety Institute
	Flight Safety Foundation
	Aviation Safety Connection

Landings is the most popular and extensive aviation Web site. It has links to many interesting sites and online databases related to aviation.

AvWeb is an online magazine and news service for the Internet's aviation community.

Trade-A-Plane is a popular publication that advertises planes and aviation equipment for sale.

Finally, no aviation page would be complete without at least one link to the NASA Human Spaceflight site. This is a link to the new consolidated Web site.