Short Final

My Class D airport seems to have little airspace it actually controls, having to talk to the overlying center for everything. The most common, of course, is to get an IFR release before any departure. Occasionally, our Tower controllers will try to anticipate to keep the traffic moving. On a recent trip, there was one […]

B18 – Alton Bay, New Hampshire: the only ice runway in the lower 48 with an FAA identifier when the ice is thick enough. The turbulence in the lee of the ridge was a bit rough. My passenger was a friend who is blind. I warned him that it “might be a bit of a […]

My home airport is KAPA, which used to be Arapahoe County Airport but is now Centennial Airport in the south metropolitan area of Denver, Colorado. One day I was flying my Super Decathlon and I was entering a right downwind to Runway 17 Right. I was overtaking a slower 172 ahead in the pattern. Tower […]

I was returning to Denver from some mountain and canyon flying in Idaho one busy Friday afternoon in July, headed towards my fuel stop in Vernal, Utah. The summer monsoon pattern was firmly in place, and the weather radar was starting to show some activity throughout the region. The first few Salt Lake controllers declined […]

On one flight, with only a crew of three (no passengers) onboard the Global Express and light on fuel, I requested a climb to FL510 (max certified altitude) as none of us had ever been that high. We usually cruise at FL450 or lower. With masks on, of course, we inched on up slowly as […]

In the summer of 1970, at the ripe old age of 16, with a total of 27 hours (13 solo), I convinced my instructor to let me fly my family’s Cessna 140 from Atlanta to Panama City for my first long solo cross country. My instructor, a former Air Force pilot and my Dad, would […]

About 25 years ago, I was working ‘ramp’ for a local airshow. Three Warbirds called the Tower upon their arrival. Number one was P-47 followed by Corsair and lastly a P-40. The P-47 was cleared to land and numbers two and three were in close trail. The P-47 was on the ground and rolling out […]

I overheard this exchange with the local TRACON, NorCal Approach, while flying along California’s central valley: NorCal Approach: Cessna XXXX maintain at or above three thousand. Cessna XXXX: Maintain at or above three thousand, Cessna XXXX. NorCal Approach: Cessna XXXX, for your viewing pleasure, at your two o’clock, a heavy C-5 at two thousand. Cessna […]

There are many stories about the horrible freeze we had in Texas this year, but I think this one of the funniest. I planned a flight to McAllen, TX, from the Lago Vista Rusty Allen Airport in the Austin area, and the runway was frozen over and covered with snow. Having grown up in North […]

We were flying into Watsonville, a non‑towered airport on California’s Monterey Bay coast recently, on an unexpectedly clear summer evening. When we tuned into the common traffic advisory frequency, we heard a Citation announce, “Clearing the active.” Wanting to know which runway was being used at Watsonville, I asked, “Watsonville traffic, Citation clearing the active, […]