I manage to lose sunglasses in the most creative ways possible. I can give you several examples… but there’s one story which really takes the proverbial cake. Read more →
A Skosh of Paranoia
You’ll hear all sorts of advice on emergent situations. Some say never rush into anything, others will tell you immediate, decisive action is invaluable. It would be lovely if there was a single “best strategy” for every situation, but like many things in the world of aviation, there are times when one of those responses can save your bacon… and just as many when it might get you killed. The real key is knowing which is which. Read more →
Time for a Shakeup
Flying is a considerably safer today than it was when the NTSB was first established. But the Board’s safety recommendations have picked most of the low-hanging fruit over the past ninety years, and the things they suggest nowadays are sometimes divorced from reality because they don’t consider the cost their proposed enhancements place on an overburdened industry. Perhaps it’s time to change that. Read more →
Santa Catalina
Over the past two decades I’ve traveled all over the country. All over the world, in fact, and my list of favored locations is long indeed. It’s hard to beat sitting on the beach next to the Sunset Bar & Grill in St. Maarten. I could spend a month in London taking in shows at the Globe, ENO or the West End. And who could say a cross word about any of the Hawaiian islands?
But if I had to choose just one place to call my all-time favorite, it wouldn’t even be a contest: it starts and ends with Santa Catalina, one of eight isles in the Channel Islands archipelago which sit just off the Southern California coast. Read more →
Flying is Not Driving
The mid-century era was a wonderful time for design, architecture, and even aviation. Unfortunately, it was also the top of a slippery slope in pilot proficiency which just happens to have coincided with a proliferation of nosewheel designs… and a maddening late 50’s advertising campaign by Cessna based on the concept that flying = driving. Every time I see this ad, all I can think is “no, No, NO!” I don’t care how many flying cars or roadable airplanes they build, flying will never be anything like driving. Read more →
A Starship in the Wild
When I was a kid in the 1980s, Beech represented some of the most exciting and cutting-edge stuff in the world of flying. For example, the much anticipated — and highly unsuccessful — Starship. We came across one recently in the mountains of Colorado, and to my eyes it still looks as sweet as the day I first saw a picture of one on the pages of Flying magazine. Read more →
Smelling the Roses
Perhaps it’s a byproduct of our Type-A personalities, but pilots seem to spend much of their time looking for the Next Big Thing: the larger aircraft, next rating, better job, pay increase, or upgrade. There’s nothing wrong with ambition, of course… but if we’re not careful, a literal lifetime of flying can pass us by and we’ll have been so busy climbing the ladder that we never stopped to enjoy the moment while we were in it.
If you are one of the fortunate few who have the power to defy gravity, do yourself a favor in the year to come and stop to smell the roses every now and then. Read more →
Where Do You Belong?
I’m often asked what flying professionally is like. It’s not an easy question to answer. A day in the life of a Alaskan fish spotter bears no resemblance whatsoever to that of a cruise pilot on an Airbus A380. The guy in the Gulfstream at Mach .80 isn’t in the same league as the one flying the blimp at 40 miles per hour. Each job requires different skills and talents, so it’s vital to honestly assess your strengths and weaknesses in order to find the career that best fits you. Read more →
Year of the Tailwheel
My wife and I just returned from a fun and relaxing flight along the Southern California coastline in a vintage 1947 Stinson Voyager. It was a perfect start to what will hopefully be a safe and prosperous new year. It also got me thinking about what would make this trip around the sun a positive one for the world of aviation.
In the Chinese zodiac, this is the year of the horse. Conservation groups have designated it the year of the salamander. CNN claims it will be the year of the blame game. For aviators, I firmly believe 2014 should be the Year of the Tailwheel. Read more →
The Key to Good IFR: More VFR
The most common landing procedure used by IFR airplanes is the visual approach. It’s fast, efficient, and simple. So why did the crew of Asiana 214 have such a hard time with it on a good clear day? Because quality IFR flying starts with a solid VFR background — and VFR flying is something ab initio pilots see very little of. Read more →