Fred is a senior editor and chief pilot with Business & Commercial Aviation and Aviation Week's chief aircraft evaluation pilot. He has flown left seat in virtually every turbine-powered business jet produced in the past three decades.
He has flown more than 195 makes, models and variants, ranging from the Piper J-3 Cub through the latest Boeing and Airbus large twins, logging more than 7,000 hours of flight time. He has earned an Airline Transport Pilot certificate and six jet aircraft type ratings, and he remains an active pilot. Fred also specializes in avionics, aircraft systems and pilot technique reports.
Fred was the first aviation journalist to fly the Boeing 787, Airbus A350 and Gulfstream G650, among other new turbofan aircraft. He’s also flown the Airbus A400M, Howard 500, Airship 600, Dassault Rafale, Grumman HU-16 Albatross and Lockheed Constellation.
Prior to joining Aviation Week, he was an FAA designated pilot examiner [CE-500], instrument flight instructor and jet charter pilot and former U.S. Naval Aviator who made three cruises to the western Pacific while flying the McDonnell-Douglas F-4J Phantom II.
Fred has won numerous aviation journalism awards, including NBAA’s David W. Ewald Platinum Wing Lifetime Achievement Award.
Productivity is the essential quality for making a profit in the regional airline industry, and as one leading airline executive put it, “You build from profitability, not to profitability.” Productivity is derived from operating cost, block-to-block speed, runway field performance, passenger and freight capacity, and the versatility to operate profitably over widely ranging mission distances.
Want King Air 200GT cruise speed plus VLJ fuel efficiency for the price of a late model Bonanza? The Mitsubishi MU-2B short-body series may be the only aircraft that fills these three requirements. It’s one of the best buys in a used aircraft market chock-full of bargains. Eight models were produced from 1967 through 1981, including the first-generation MU-2B, D, DP, F, K and M, plus the second-generation P and MU-2B-40 Solitaire.
A 2001 Pilatus PC-12, S/N 403, registered to an Oregon holding company controlled by Irving Feldkamp, DDS of San Bernardino, Calif., crashed 500 feet short of the Bert Mooney Airport at Butte, Mont., on March 22 at about 2:36 p.m. MDT, killing all 14 aboard, including seven children. The aircraft left Oroville, Calif. at 11:10 a.m. PDT, bound for Bozeman, Mont., a trip of about 596 nautical miles. However, the pilot diverted to Butte, about 57 nm west-northwest of Bozeman.
