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Trying to reason with thunderstorm season
Welcome to the first of what is planned to be a monthly installment about pilots. We’ll look at how well they aviate, how poorly, and how they can do better. We’ll pick apart news items affecting them,...
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No, your other VFR
When the weather’s bad enough to call it IFR, VFR-only pilots are grounded. Except when they’re not. The day’s mission was to re-familiarize with a long-trustworthy companion, a Cessna 172 owned by...
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Fast moving dragons
It’s way too early to know what happened to cause early July’s mid-air collision between a Cessna 150 and a U.S. Air Force F-16C near Moncks Corner, S.C. The accident is being investigated by the NTSB,...
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No step
One of aviation’s endearing characteristics involves the abundant myths surrounding aircraft operation: Do this, that or some other thing and your airplane will carry more, fly faster on less fuel and...
View ArticleThe evolution of Flight Service
Even though little remains of the FAA’s Flight Service function, some of us still remember the old-fashioned ways. Up front, I’ll admit I’m old school, but only to an extent. I prefer steam to glass,...
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That’s how it happens
So, there I was, high, hot and too close-in for even a chop-and-drop approach. What to do? I was steaming into a nearby airport situated next to Tampa Bay. The morning’s mission was to meet a neighbor...
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Logbooks catalog more than hours
I’m in the middle of what’s shaping up to be a long-term project: Organizing my logbooks and other flight records. I have varying details on literally decades of personal flying spread across four...
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Niner-Niner Zulu: Some things in aviation are meant to be
One of my earliest aviation memories is of a family holiday trip from our home in Illinois to Florida, spending the season with not one, but two, grandmothers and relations. Any Christmas dinner for 30...
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The day I groundlooped a Baron
Flying the same aircraft all the time can be boring after a while. It’s an affliction most aircraft owners share, though it’s not one to generate much sympathy from non-owners. But after months and...
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Birds do it, but they have a learning curve, too
A variety of sources detailing the Wright brothers’ research methods and conclusions prior to the successful first powered flight note their study of birds. From that study, they observed and...
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On the borderline
A summer job working the line at the local airport can be a great thing for an aspiring pilot, but perhaps not for the airplanes. One of my first real jobs was pumping car gas, back in the days when...
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The assistant principal
Most people have what it takes to become a pilot — some don’t Several people in my southern hometown’s high school were interested in learning to fly. Either the local Civil Air Patrol’s composite...
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Two in the bush
Flying in remote Alaska is just about the most memorable fun one can have in an airplane. If you’re like me, you’ve often read about bush flying. We all have different definitions of exactly what that...
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Three things no pilot wants to hear
Pilots have many popular sayings we share among ourselves and with others. They result from a desire to impress non-pilots with our “daredevil” spirit and how we “conquer” the mystique of flying,...
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Quirky
It’s ironic that pilots are supposed to do everything the same way each time while the airplanes we’re flying are all different. One supposed characteristic of aviation is its consistency. Performing...
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First-Timers
If you’re lucky, you may get a chance to give someone their first airplane ride. In fact, flying passengers can be one of the real highlights of becoming a pilot. (And I’m thinking of pure passengers,...
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One of aviation’s guilty pleasures
“If you have time to spare, go by air” is one of many truisms associated with traveling by aircraft. It’s perhaps rooted most deeply in general aviation, where no matter how hard we may try, a schedule...
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Crop Duster
We can always learn things from other pilots, even if the lessons aren’t obvious. For me, one of the most interesting and rewarding aspects of flying is the people I’ve met along the way. So it was...
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Lounging around
There are three basic types of people you meet in the typical FBO’s pilot lounge. If you’ve read many of my columns for General Aviation News, it will not surprise you to learn I like hanging around...
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Cool story, Bro
Any time two or more pilots get together, no matter the reason, the conversation eventually turns to flying. Even if one of them just got married, they’ll at least ask each other how their flight in...
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