Touring Machine Company

This is a collection of type clubs, associations, and web pages dedicated to specific aircraft. Some of the web sites look like they have not been updated in a while, but they still have some interesting information. Active or interesting sites are indicated with bold text links. General Interest Associations AOPA With a membership base [...]

The FAA recently changed the duration of medicals for persons under 40 years of age. The duration of first-class medicals for pilots under 40 years is now 1 year instead of 6 months. The duration of third-class medicals is now 5 years instead of 3 years. The duration of second-class medicals did not change. It [...]

Certificates §61.23 Medical certificates: Requirement and duration. (a) Operations requiring a medical certificate. Except as provided in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section, a person— (1) Must hold a first-class medical certificate when exercising the privileges of an airline transport pilot certificate; (2) Must hold at least a second-class medical certificate when exercising the [...]

I just refurbished a 1968 Piper Cherokee 140 and liked the result so much that I decided to keep it and rent it out. This post is a collection of articles on buying and flying the Cherokee. Image from original Piper marketing literature. My Cherokee Overview Fred Weick, the designer of the Ercoupe, designed the [...]

When reading about aircraft in publications like Aviation Consumer, I tend to focus on the accident causes and it seems that across all aircraft, around 12% of accidents are caused by fuel exhastion and another 2-4% by fuel contamination. This usually puts fuel mismanagement in third or fourth place among accident causes. Inexplicably, fuel exhaustion [...]

FAR §91.151 Fuel requirements for flight in VFR conditions. (a) No person may begin a flight in an airplane under VFR conditions unless (considering wind and forecast weather conditions) there is enough fuel to fly to the first point of intended landing and, assuming normal cruising speed— (1) During the day, to fly after that [...]

Certification of Aircraft is covered by PART 23–AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: NORMAL, UTILITY, ACROBATIC, AND COMMUTER CATEGORY AIRPLANES Among other things it sets out the four types of aircraft that are normally flown in Part 91 operations. FAR §23.3 Airplane categories. (a) The normal category is limited to airplanes that have a seating configuration, excluding pilot seats, of [...]