AVweb Classics

Damn, it’s early! I know it is really three hours later, body-wise, because I live on the east coast, but it still feels like 5 a.m. A light rain is falling on LAX this morning. Not enough to get my uniform wet and certainly not enough to justify a rain poncho as I head out […]

The end of a not very long day. One leg from SFO to home at the end of a four-day safari and we were almost officially at the end of our week.Humping our suitcases out of the luggage rack and with our flight kits dragging them to the front door, we paused only to hook […]

Our 767 was number three in line at the de-icing pad and with the snow continuing to drop heavily, it looked like we had a little time to pass.Keith, my copilot, was a little apprehensive and was making damn sure we were ready to follow the de-ice procedures. About 10 years back, he and his […]

Eastbound and down, loaded up and truckin’, we’re going to do something that they said couldn’t be done — arrive on time in Newark on Christmas Eve.This feat is harder during the Christmas season than almost any other. In addition to unusually high passenger loads, icy weather and high winds, we airline crews are dealing […]

A 777 cockpit can be a crowded place if you fill all of the seats. Along with the relief-pilot seat there is a fairly uncomfortable jump seat. With the back of the airplane full of returning Americans and potential British ex-pats, I found myself a sort-of cockpit captive for the eight and a half hour […]

My 17-year-old nephew Kermit asked me to go with him out to the local airport to have a gander at some WWII bombers that were visiting the aviation museum. It was a good excuse to avoid mowing the lawn and gave him the chance to scare the bejesus out of me with his driving.I was […]

The past few weeks and months haven’t exactly been the most enjoyable of my flying career. If we weren’t dealing with hurricanes, destroyed cities and plague, we were worrying about and dealing with airlines declaring bankruptcy and telling their old, sick retirees, “Sorry, pard, I know you’re 85 and have cancer but no soup for […]

I was wandering the terminal awaiting my daughter’s arrival from the city on the other side of the continent that she saw fit to move to at her very first opportunity after graduating high school. I know that regular people aren’t allowed to go through security and await their loved ones at the gate.I had […]

Flying airliners has changed quite a bit during the past 50 years but the pilots have remained the same.They always appear to be dependable, clean-cut and boringly similar on their surfaces, but they possess traits that the flying public doesn’t detect.These personality traits aren’t just limited to airline pilots, although with the amount of time […]

Every pilot will tell you that summer flying is very different from aviating in the winter months. Wasps in the pitot tubes are absent in January. There are no chunks of airframe ice keeping your stabilizer from working during July; and in the Northern Hemisphere, your gloves will never freeze to a jetway as you […]