Features

Gen. Robert L. Cardenas was bornMarch 10, 1920, in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. At age five, he moved to San Diego,Calif., with his parents. He built model airplanes and helped local gliderpilots with dope-and-fabric projects. Being the top student in math and physicsat his high school earned him a two-year pre-engineering scholarship to SanDiego State University. […]

Cardenas: Muroc tower, Air Force Eight Zero Zero taxi instructions. Tower: B-twenty-nine Eight Zero Zero cleared Runway six. Winds out ofEast seven miles an hour. Cardenas: We cleared to roll? Tower: Roger, cleared to line up and roll. Swindell (B-29 flight Engineer): She’s all yours, Major. Cardenas: All right, Swindell? Cardenas: Rolling. B-29 left side […]

Although all kinds of sport flying are for fun rather than transportation, all you “power pilots” don’t know what fun is until you try soaring; it’s so quiet the instructor can hear his students cry. Soaring in a glider or sailplane is just pure joy. With the sophisticated aircraft of today that most of us […]

I had a nightmare the other night. Boy, I hate those things. In this one, I could “see” through the eyes of a new trainee. Weird huh? Anyway, this trainee comes strutting around the corner of the control room, full of vim and vigor, and the first thing he sees is this old beat-up guy […]

The events of the eleventh of September affected all of us deeply. The Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport became jammed that day and has remained so with pilots who have come together and try to sort out the myriad emotions that each felt. The attacks, the subsequent groundings and then the national suspicion of […]

Thomas W. Wathen was born October5, 1929, in Vincennes, Ind., across the Wabash River from O’Neal airport. Theairplane bug bit early. He built model airplanes, became a Civil Air PatrolCadet, and traded airplane rides for work around the airport. He graduated fromIndiana University in 1951 with a degree in Police Administration. He joined theAir Force, […]

I‘ve said before and I’ll say again, the folks in ATC (air traffic control) are, on the whole, the greatest public servants in the history of the human race. However, the Flight Standards division of the FAA is an entirely different story. The vast majority of people in Flight Standards are typical bureaucrats, shuffling paper […]

Most pilots I know believe that the Global Positioning System (GPS) is the greatest thing since the invention of DME. It’s easy to see why. It’s like magic. No more pesky VORs; you can navigate direct to any point on the planet. What’s not to like? If you’re a pilot, not much. If you’re a […]

It suddenly occurred to me that I’ve never done a column on my all-time favorite airplane! How could I have so neglected my old sweetheart? My logbook reveals that I have 1,864.08 hours in this old classic, second only to the 747 time, which we won’t count because it’s a nosedragger, it burns that stinky […]

What a week. Like many of you, I’ve been stranded by the grounding of general aviation since Tuesday, finally able to fly my Debonair out of Las Vegas, Nev., as of Friday evening. Like many of you, I have some barely suppressed anger at the federal government for its actions in grounding me – and […]