Search Results for: angel flight west

Authorities are contacting United Airlines passengers in response to social media rumors that a man who died on their flight might have had COVID-19. Early in the flight from Orlando to Los Angeles last Monday, the man suffered a medical emergency, possibly cardiac arrest. The plane diverted to New Orleans where his body was removed […]

For some, flying is just braving the traffic pattern or short, local flights. But serious long-distance flying or commercial operations will eventually bring you to the heart of the Great Plains. Meteorology captivated me because of the incredibly turbulent and strange weather in this area. I chased tornadoes for 15 years and forecasted weather for […]

A China Airlines crew reported encountering what appeared to be an individual flying via jetpack in the vicinity of California’s Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Wednesday. The sighting, the second such report to be made at LAX in the past six weeks, occurred at about 1:45 p.m. local time. The jetpack was seen approximately […]

We pilots are second to none in our adoration of firsts: First solo; first crossing of Lake Erie in a Savoia Marchetti amphibious biplane to smuggle whisky from Canada during Prohibition; or the first time you taxied over a runway light and inscribed a jagged scar into the elevator when first flying your new Citabria […]

History tells us that the only constants in the wake of a natural disaster or enemy attack are confusion, anger and a grim determination to fight back. Its victims and their leaders face the need to make decisions and act despite a nearly crippling lack of information, unreliable eyewitness statements, rumors and pronouncements by self-proclaimed […]

For those who have experienced it, the fun of going on a flying trip with your friends and their families in the airplanes you built comes pretty close to maxing out the fun factor for many of us. What really makes this experience enjoyable is being able to share it with a group of competent […]

While flying over Long Island recently on an Angel Flight Mission around 2:30 p.m. I heard the following: Cessna 1234: “New York, Cessna 1234 off Linden Municipal. Looking for flight following to Montauk.” TRACON: “Cessna 1234 Squawk 5678. How does the Sunrise look?” Cessna 1234: “Currently climbing and can’t see it. Will let you know […]

Retired NBA star Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were among nine victims of a fatal helicopter crash near Los Angeles on Sunday. Bryant and the others were aboard a Sikorsky S-76 that went down on a wooded hillside in Calabasas about 9:47 a.m. local time. Initial reports said he owned the S-76. It […]

In my view, there are four basic categories of aviation weather threats: low clouds and reduced visibility; turbulence and low-level wind shear; airframe ice; and thunderstorms (which may contain the three other hazards in one nasty package). When evaluating weather for a planned flight, I look at observations and forecasts with each of these specific […]

The rise of the regional jet has displaced twin turboprops in the short-haul airline market and that, in turn, has relegated a certain term to the dustbin of dead words: puddle jumper. Remember it? Nervous passengers applied it to the unfairly maligned Beech 99 or Embraer Bandeirante poised on the ramp to whisk—OK, plod—them from […]