Features

In early February, Boeing’s second-largest union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), went out on strike. I’m in kind of a unique position; I’m one of the striking engineers and also an aviation journalist. It is said that this is the largest white-collar strike in history. Couple that with the fact that […]

BetterJob? I become quite upset when I hear a youngflight instructor announce that he/she is just teaching until a “goodjob” or a “better job” in aviation comes along. I want you toknow – there is no higher calling for an aviator than to be a reallyfirst-class, professional flight instructor. There is no better job! And […]

Cliff Robertson was born in La Jolla,Calif,. and saw his first airplane at age five. By age 13, he was a dedicated hangarrat and his reward for washing and waxing was a little unofficial stick time. Years later,in the suburbs of London, the urge to fly surfaced again and hasn’t gone away since. Cliff is […]

Oneof the regulars here at the Pilot’s Lounge went through an interesting processrecently. Armando made the decision to obtain his flight instructor certificate.He has a full time job that pays reasonably well so he probably isn’t going tochange careers. Some of the other regulars thought he was crazy to spend themoney to get what is […]

Elbert Rutan was born in Dinuba, Calif., inJune 1943. After receiving a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from Cal Poly, he worked forthe U. S. Air Force as a Flight Test Project Engineer at Edwards AFB, Calif., until 1972.After two years designing and developing the Bede BD-J5 he formed RAF, the Rutan AircraftFactory. For the next […]

When you arrived at Plant City you were on a VFR flight plan. What was your original plan for the day? I started in Melbourne. I was building cross-country time for my instrument rating. I want to get the instrument rating first, then I’ll have enough hours to go right into the commercial rating. At […]

I am not proud of this all-too-true story.It demonstrates incredible stupidity and poor judgment on my part, and it is the closest Ishall ever come to dying without doing so. I have told the story to only a very smallhandful of people, and I am certain that some of those probably don’t believe it, as […]

My compliments to Mr. Erik Reed-Mohn for a very well-written response to my columns on this subject. He eloquently expresses the factors behind the drive to adopt new (to most of the world) procedures. I remain unconvinced, but rather than flog this horse to death, I have but a few comments, and will thereafter move […]

This article is written in response to Mr. John Deakin’s Pelican’s Perch columns #24 and #25 concerning Constant-Angle Non-Precision Approaches (CANPA), in which Mr. Deakin takes the position that such stabilized non-precision approaches may not be appropriate for use by other than glass-cockpit aircraft with VNAV automation. I differ with that view. The concept of […]

As the snow piles up around the windows at the virtual airport and some of the resident airplanes grow funny appendages on their landing gear, I always ponder the fact that many pilots will spend a pile of money to put their feet into skis but few ever explore flying airplanes with skis attached. That’s […]