The FAA has seen fit to ban all personal electronic devices from the airline cockpit, as well as strongly recommend a similar prohibition for Part 135 and 91K operators. As one who flies a fair number of overnight, long-haul flights, I think this is a bad idea and one which will hurt rather than help flight safety. Read more →
We put a lot of time and effort into taking care of our flying machines. On a recent trip, I got a rude reminder that our biological machinery needs the same attention. A pulled back muscle turned into a major pain in the neck just as my medical certificate was about to expire. Read more →
For better or worse, the relentless march of technology means we’re more connected than ever, in more places than ever. For the most part that’s good. We benefit from improving communication, situational awareness, and reduced pilot workload in the cockpit. But there’s a dark side to digital connectivity, and in an era of internet-connected refrigerators, toilets, and a/c systems, I predict it’s only a matter of time before we start to see it in our airborne lives. Read more →
While supersonic airliners were all the rage in the 1960s, they never panned out economically because commercial airliners have to turn a profit. But business aircraft do not. They’re simply tools for allowing business to be conducted. In addition, recent technological developments are bringing us closer to mitigating the sonic boom’s impact. It’s clear we’re headed back to that supersonic future to pick up where we left off half a century ago. Read more →