Reader Mail

Veterans Day 2020: Infinite Remembrance Thank you, Mr. Bertorelli. This is the best Veteran’s Day article I may ever read. Through tears. I was in Chu Lai during the rocket attack in which Army nurse Sharon Ann Lane was killed. After a couple thousand hours in the Huey, much of it in Vietnam, I have […]

Can A Computer Think Like A Pilot? It’s A Trivial Question Long-suffering readers of this space are familiar with one of many YARSisms: “The very best implementation of a flawed concept is, itself, fatally flawed.” In my experience, most flawed concepts have their nexus in flawed premises. In the case of the linked video, the […]

Your Analysis Of Priorities Matters My first biological emergency almost five decades ago involved the FAA, fire trucks, an ambulance, the state police, and many hundreds of witnesses. It was almost noon on a beautiful fall day with no wind or clouds. Chugging along in my tandem Taylorcraft, a weakening bladder compelled me to land […]

Defensive Flying Excellent article. I want to add that if you are practicing ILS or RNAV approaches at a non-towered airport you have to be very specific about your intentions and location and even more vigilant as many VFR pilots are unfamiliar with IFR procedures. Adib B. Don’t forget that you may have rotorcraft legitimately […]

Airport Derelicts Offer High Hopes In Low Times It’s amazing how quickly time passes. When I started flying in the mid-seventies, my steed was a well-worn 1938 J-3, long victimized by a past history of windstorms and neglect and scarred by numerous spar splices and welded repairs. But we were a team, exploring every small […]

I, Taildragger Bigot As you say, being a taildragger or glider pilot doesn’t by definition make you a better pilot overall. But I do believe getting some glider (which I have) and taildragger (which I haven’t – there really aren’t many of them to train in in my local area) training will help. It’s not […]

Cheap Money Boosts Aircraft Sales Another interesting aviation paradox. Cheap money to finance the late model used airplane, with a significant percentage of loans going to those who have the means to pay cash, more likely are an older demographic, and yet are harder and almost prohibitively expensive to insure. Or, if a younger demographic, […]

Flight School First To Add High Fidelity Motion Simulator This is a great step forward! While there is no substitute for “the real thing” today’s sims are pretty darn close! I wish these kinds of sims had existed way back in the stone age when I went to UPT / learned to fly the T-29 […]

First Time Flying Open Cockpit Paul–that’s “some pretty good writin’ fer an Iowa Boy!” I just finished up giving a tailwheel endorsement and required 10 hours of dual in a PT-19 last week. I flew a PT-19 for about 150 hours in 1967-68, and hadn’t touched one since–but that was good enough for the insurance […]

Bad Rules Undermine Credibility Of Regulators Good article, Russ, but I must take issue with your title: “Bad Rules Undermine Credibility of Regulators”. The insinuation is that BasicMed is a bad rule, when most contend it is the opposite. Yes, it has its issues, but those are mainly due to the haphazard way in which […]