Features

TheFreight Dogs When someone says, “commercialpilot,” the first thing the listener thinks of is an air carrier pilotwearing a blazer with stripes up to his/her elbow. But there are many moreoccupations for professional pilots than just flying a human mailing tube, notleast of which are the so-called “freight dogs” – the cargo haulersflying all kinds […]

Full Employment Is Only a Few New Fees Away December 28 1430 Z 9,500 msl V23, midway between Veracruz and Villahermosa VORs, Mexico Suddenly, it’s right there before of me and, ay, carumba, does it seem simple. Planemakers, our alphabet soup-group gurus and we pilots have it all wrong. We’ve mistakenly spent years of effort […]

Robert Jenkins had a system deviation today. He was workingMetropolis-highR-side and the sector was down the tubes. Busy, busy, busy. Somewhere in therehe ran a guy into Southwest Center’s Capital City-high’s airspace. Bad news. That’s ano-no in air traffic control, running a guy into someone else’s airspace withouta handoff. Southwest Center, at least the system […]

The 747 was nearing the end of the trans-Pacific flight from Tokyo to Anchorage, Alaska, and had begun a descent from Flight Level 370 about 120nm from the runway. The triple Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) had functioned perfectly, and the autopilot in INS mode still held the big bird on a flawless and perfectly straight […]

It wasn’t really a bad day, just a little challenging. The wind was gusting to about 15 and it was bumpy. The clouds were solid at 3,000 feet, but the visibility was great. Students were working hard in the crosswind and the gusts, and a couple of pilots were sitting here in the Lounge drinking […]

Henry Kisor was born August 17, 1940, inRidgewood, N.J. Age three brought his first experience in the cockpit of a TBF Avenger,and a bout with meningitis that would take away his ability to hear. Henry’s parentstaught him to read and to read lips and to find his place in a hearing world. He earned aB.A. […]

Below are links to the final conference report on H.R. 1000, the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century, or AIR-21, plus additional background files.

Areader who requested that I discuss making perfect landings, – with animation, noless – prompted this column. In a perfect world it would be easy to consistently make those neat landingsin which our passengers, as we are rolling out after a real greaser, look aroundand exclaim, “When did we land?” However, I don’t live in […]

The recent loss of Alaska Airlines 261 waslike an unexpected hard punch in the gut for me, and for everyone in the airline business,because we know that Alaska is one of the very finest airlines, with excellent attitudesprevailing in the cockpits and cabins, good equipment, good maintenance, good training,and highly skilled pilots who operate in […]

The full verbatim transcript of Darryl Phillips’ trialbefore NTSB Judge Mullins, plus some “rest of the story”comments by Phillips are also available. The NTSB appeal is over and FAA lost. I now have my new certificate, with gliderrating, in my wallet. There will be no further appeal. I won. That is the end of the […]