Features

This is a bit embarrassing, but I might as well come clean: Up until a few years ago, I was still flying my Cessna T310R with only the primitive engine instrumentation installed by the factory in 1979. Shame on me!I’d long since upgraded my avionics stack with conspicuous quantities of glass, including a Garmin GNS-530 […]

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 […]

Specificity 101 Heard on Philadelphia Approach: Duke 1234: Philly Approach, we’re gonna begin our VFR descent for the field. Controller: Duke 1234, say altitude descending to. Duke 1234: We’re descending for the field. Controller: Roger, Duke 1234, say altitude descending to. Duke 1234: Well, the field elevation is 78 feet, so … hopefully, we won’t […]

Lockheed Martin FSS I’ve had a little different experience with Lockheed Martin FSS than Ted Anderson (AVmail, Dec. 5).I retired from the Oakland, Calif., FSS in 1998. One reason was that I could see the “handwriting on the wall.” The FAA was pouring millions into updating FSS equipment. But between management ineptness and foot dragging […]

In the weeks that followed Hurricane Katrina, the images being showcased by the media were hard to miss: helicopter rescue crews hoisting survivors off rooftops in the flooded city of New Orleans. With nowhere to go but the murky waters that surrounded their flooded homes, Hurricane Katrina survivors looked to the sky for hope and […]

Recently heard at Manchester international: Nameless 747 jock: “Ground, can you confirm that a ‘400 will fit between these two lamposts?” ATC: “Yip, absolutely, no shadow of a doubt, definitely will.” … pause … ATC: “Assuming you are on the centreline…..”

I don’t know why air disasters take on the names of towns or places. I guess we have to give them some sort of name to catalogue them in our minds. Perhaps geography is just convenient. It does seem unfair to the towns. Lockerbie, Scotland, didn’t have anything to do with Pan Am 103 blowing […]