The ALPA meeting was over and we were in the coffee shop with a bunch of the retirees that had come to see if they still had a retirement. With all the recent turmoil in the business, many airlines had tried to do away with retirement benefits and some had succeeded. Lucky for us they […]
If you’ve already read the first chapter in the book, “The Cessna, The Sky … and the Cartoonist,” then see what the reviewers say about it! “The best read I’ve had in many years; the spelling is almost up to the 50% mark and the punctuation is highly imaginative.” — W. Shakespeare “I had thought […]
Why Not Evacuate for Hurricane? Thanks for saying this (ATIS, Aug. 19). I was one of the very, very few who moved our plane out of Clearwater (CLW), to Asheville, by the way. Why so few?What really bothered me was the lack of concern by owners about the environment they’d created. Despite us “getting the […]
If you’ve ever had the misfortune to be around an aircraft crash, there are certain aspects of it that are unforgettable. One is the smell: a disagreeable blend of fuel, oil, hydraulic fluid and wet upholstery, and a sour, metallic odor unique to bent, broken or burned airplanes. Although the wind carried off most of […]
A couple of recent events have compelled me to write this article. It’s going to be a little different than my standard fare. You may need to shift into a different gear, so be forewarned.As most of you are aware, I’m getting to be a short-timer. I’ve got just a little over two years left […]
In a scene sadly reminiscent of several South Florida airports in the wake of Hurricane Andrew a decade ago, Charlotte Countys Punta Gorda Airport bore the early wrath of Charley as he came ashore just north of Fort Meyers late Friday afternoon. Radar data indicated that Charleys compact eye tracked northeasterward up Charlotte Harbor directly […]
It was a dark and stormy night. (I always wanted to start a story like that!) Hurricane Charley hit Winter Haven with its full force at about 7:30 on the evening of Friday the 13th. It was packing winds well over 100 mph (the nearest reporting anemometer blew away after recording 106) and damage was […]
A lot of folks have been saying that the training system is broken. It is and it has been for several years. The advent of technically advanced aircraft has just made that breakdown more apparent. Now, with the coming of the very light jets (VLJ) there is much hand-wringing about “amateurs” in the flight levels. […]
Where is “Southern Canada”? In reference to the Canadian ballooning accident reported this in this week’s AVweb (NewsWire, Aug. 9) …Being as Canada is just about exactly the same width as the U.S. (“Sea to Shining Sea” about covers it), would American readers accept a news story that said a balloon accident occurred this week […]
On Friday and Saturday, Hurricane Charley hit the Florida coastline hard and fast. Despite being without power, contributing writer Tim Kern sent these photos. Click Any Image for a High-Resolution PhotoEach high-res image opens in a new window for easy browsing. Photos of the Punta Gorda Air Terminal
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