Say Again?

Each month, AVweb publishes about a half-dozen columns on a range of aviation topics. If we do things right, these simply appear on the site, for all to read free of charge. What’s less obvious is the behind-the-scenes work and thought that goes into these columns. That’s another way of saying producing a monthly column […]

You may think it’s the wrong time of year to write about thunderstorms but that is what I’ve chosen to write about. My reasoning is that there is much to learn — and much I can’t teach you. I’m going to talk about various things but my goal is to get you to do some […]

One of my new duties in retirement is that of driver. Mom’s taxi has become Dad’s taxi. I was driving my son to school, halfway listening to a story on National Public Radio and I heard a familiar phrase: “Institutional memory.” That got my attention. Institutional memory is a phrase I use when I try […]

This is the last article I get to write as an air traffic controller. I retire from the FAA on December 1. No longer a controller. No longer a Federal employee. No longer a safety rep for NATCA. While I’ll admit to a certain sense of melancholy, it is far outweighed by my sense of […]

I was reading a description of a pilot’s actions as he was programming his GPS the other day. It didn’t take me long to get lost. Press this button, go to that page, turn this dial. Pretty soon I found myself wondering, “Who’s flying the airplane during all this?” It sure seemed complicated.I’m sure it […]

I spend a lot of time talking about “the book.” I use the phrase as a catchall for FAA publications. My favorite “book,” by far, is the AIM — The Aeronautical Information Manual. Some might consider that strange in that I’m not a pilot. I’m a controller. You might expect me to spend most of […]

Do you get nervous on the radio? Me too. After a slight delay to handle a family matter, I arrived at Oshkosh just in time to do my very first radio interview. And I mean just in time. The radio interview was at 12 noon and I didn’t get there until 11:30 a.m. or so. […]

This is the problem with being a safety rep: After a while, your perspective changes on things. Sometimes, it seems like every thing. Take this story from a recent edition of AVweb, for instance: NTSB Finding Reassessed — Case To Reopen, Decades After … When a Piedmont Airlines 727 and a Cessna 310 collided over […]

Everybody wants to move up. I guess it’s just natural. Most pilots start out flying “low and slow” and long to go higher, faster, further. The Cessna 150 turns into a 172 and then a 210, to a twin and now everybody is dreaming about a Very Light Jet (VLJ).You see it somewhat in controllers, […]

I need a new phrase. The ones I know just don’t quite fit. There’s a growing trend in aviation — for both pilots and controllers — and it troubles me: We aren’t paying close attention. The “little things” seem to slip through the cracks more often than in the past.I’ll just talk it out and […]