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I was on an airliner flying over the Midwest on my way to a business appointment in June and it struck me that I had forgotten just how green it is in the middle of the country in the summertime. Southern California is a lot of things, but green in the summer is not one […]

Not long ago I wrote a column about the discussions we had in the pilot’s lounge here at the virtual airport concerning training instrument students in actual instrument conditions. There was a lot of feedback from readers and, overall, it turned out that a fairly large majority of people was in favor of such training. […]

Rick L. Cremer was born November12, 1945, in South Bend, Ind. His stepfather was a civil engineer for the stateof Michigan, so Rick moved from Alpena to Traverse City to Detroit while hisstepfather surveyed for the then-new interstate highway system. He took flyinglessons in high school, but didn’t finish his private certificate until midwaythrough his […]

Lookingback, we waited far longer than wise to decide to equip our heads with active-noise-reduction headsets; even with a significant amount of sound insulationinstalled in our classic Piper Comanche, the physical impact of segments lastingthree and four hours usually left us tired beyond necessity. Money – actuallythe shortage of it, as is usually our case […]

Not long ago, Rick Durden and I wrote companion columns on the subject of buying and selling airplanes. Now it is time to discuss airplane paperwork – the maintenance records which provide a complete history of everything that has been done to the airplane since it left the factory as well as a complete equipment […]

This article appeared in the February 2001 edition of IFR Refresher and is reprinted here by permission. From the very first day of our instrument training, we are taught never to descend below decision height (DH) or minimum descent altitude (MDA) unless the runway environment is in sight. It is a basic concept of instrument […]

Introduction — By Phil Kolczynski “Enforcement Survival School” is like finding yourself in Jurassic Park. I’ll let you guess who the dinosaurs are. In Jurassic Park I, a.k.a., “Enforcement Survival School, Part 1,” the lawyer was devoured by “T-REX” right off the “john.” At least, he left the legacy of the “Duct Tape Defense.” In […]

This was a dream come true and I was feeling pretty darn good. In early May, I found myself sitting in the back of an Extra 300L at the end of a runway. The aircraft was mine to play with. Fortunately, there was somebody else in the plane, with a slightly better idea of what […]

When AVweb approached me about writing this column, I really didn’t know what to think. I was flattered, of course. But I was apprehensive, too. First of all, I’m not a writer. Secondly, despite my title, I’m just a plain old everyday controller. I didn’t get any special training to be a Safety Representative for […]

Pretty neat image, huh? I actually got to fly missions in that thing. Yes, it’s a U-2 spyplane; we referred to it as the “Dragonlady.” The saying went, you had to learn to fight with the dragon before you could dance with the lady. It was a joy to fly, but more so than any […]