FBOs

Pilot lounges are happy places containing the most entertaining bulletin boards available in the aviation world.You can tell a lot about the state of the world and what time of year it is by just looking over what is for sale on the wall of a lounge. When you see motorboats, airplanes, and expensive motorcycles […]

You know it’s bad when you walk into the control room and hear a controller yell, “I want a tracker!” It really wasn’t what he said so much as how he said it. The high side was trying to work all the East Coast traffic around Tropical Storm Gaston and it was getting ugly. A […]

The shadows were lengthening outside the window of the Pilot’s Lounge here at the virtual airport. From the tattered old lounge chair, I could see that the activity on the ramp was spooling down into “tucking them away for the night” mode. The flight school trainers were being fueled by the line crew and moved […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

Old Hack, our resident curmudgeon, caught me in the Pilot’s Lounge, here at the virtual airport, the other morning. He plopped down in one of the big, old, worn recliners, scowled at me and said, “Hey, I’m the one who’s supposed to look pissed off at the world. If you look more angry at things […]

Mo had brought me my second beer and I was well on my way to losing my first ten bucks to the video blackjack machine imbedded in the bar when Janet and Keith showed up to share my Las Vegas layover with me.Probably in accord with the public’s preconceived notions of gender roles, Janet was […]

Welcome back class. I don’t think there is any other subject that I’ve tried to cover that has created as much confusion as this subject. I know there isn’t another that has been misconstrued as much. It’s been a real eye-opener to see some of the interpretations springing from my articles. Let’s take another whack […]

One of the contentions among those who show up here in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport is that those who are attracted to aviation have a significantly greater sense of adventure than those who merely exist on the surface of the planet. Perhaps it is because we desire to move in the third […]