Features

It was the wee hours of the morning, and the center’s frequency had been dead silent for quite a while. Finally, a pilot just had to check. Pilot:“Uh, Albuquerque – anybody home?” Controller:“Nope. We’re all at work.” Art Friedman

Letter of the Week:Orion a Step Backward I viewed the test flight of the Orion crew capsule with mixed emotions. I’m glad that we are finally getting our act together so that we are not relying on the Russians to get us into low Earth orbit and sad that we are now back to shooting […]

Just because the vast majority of the airplanes most of us fly have their little wheel mounted on the nose instead of the tail doesn’t mean the nosewheel is immune to abuse. Nor does it mean we can ignore the nosewheel’s peculiarities, even if an airplane with one is much easier to handle on the […]

Weekend activities on SocialFlight offer holiday fly-ins and even a marathon. Santa will land at the Lapeer Airport in Michigan Saturday. Fly (or drive) in and look to the skies as Santa makes a special appearance at 12:30 p.m., so be sure to arrive in time to see his approach into Lapeer. Bring the little […]

One clear Christmas night, my wife and I were returning to San Diego after visiting our son in central California. There was little radio traffic, but check-ins with controllers were invariably prefaced with “Merry Christmas.” So, as we proceeded into Bakersfield’s air space: Me:“Good evening, Bakersfield. Merry Christmas.” Bakersfield Tower:“Humbug.” Me:“Why ‘humbug’?” Bakersfield Tower:“Have you […]

Letter of the Week:Third Class Medical Issues Regarding Woody Beck’s article on the decline of GA: He states the following,“Over the longer term, changes in the third class medical will have no significant impact because its cost is negligible, roughly the cost of 15 gallons of av fuel every two years for us older pilots.” […]

Let’s start at the very beginning since that’s where tales of all good adventures originate. When you are raised by two pilots it is natural to have flying in the blood, but passion is not something inherited; it’s something discovered. For me, true passion came in the form of four hooves and a soft nicker […]

Keeping your holding skills up to date these days feels like keeping a working fax machine around; well, I suppose this might come in handy. Someday. Maybe. Holds are rare, and the most common ones for the fat middle of GA are holds published on instrument approach charts where you have to make a few […]

The holiday spirit is gearing up on SocialFlight, where winter flying and Christmas treats are plentiful, snow or no snow. On Saturday, Oceano Airport in California will host its annual Toys for Tots event in cooperation with the U.S. Marine Corps. Bring a new, unwrapped toy and enjoy the fun. Arrivals and holiday beverages will […]

We did not have digital radar in the TRACON 25 years ago when I was an air traffic controller. With our analog radar, spring and fall waterfowl migrations of ducks, geese, and cranes always created a cluster of raw radar returns on the scope. It was one of those days when the scope was almost […]