FBOs

Trying to guess what Mother Nature is going to do is risky business. I had to wait three weeks to get my yard aerated because it wouldn’t stop raining. I finally got it done, threw down a bunch of grass seed and I bet it hasn’t rained an inch in the month since.Mother Nature will […]

Over the years, I’ve found that the Pilot’s Lounge here at the virtual airport is one of the better places to sit and read aviation books, particularly of an evening, after things have quieted down. Sitting in the big, fat, old recliners, there are times that I read something about flight that strikes me, and […]

I am having trouble believing that the 727 is ancient history, I said to my tennis-club bartender.”What is a 727 and why are you sitting at my bar if all you are going to drink is Diet Coke?” asked Fred. Fred has been the bartender at my tennis club for over 10 years, and this […]

Once again it’s time for me to take a trip down the road to unpopularity and write an article about a subject we’d rather not talk about. I never have been able to leave well enough alone. It’s probably the reason I don’t get invited to dinner more often than I do. I like to […]

I’m pleased to announce that — after decades of prodding — I have written a book. It is a compendium of some of my writings on Compuserve’s AVSIG Forum for well over 20 years, some of the AVweb tales in my columns, and others, old and new (see sidebar to the right).There is a second […]

I don’t know how many times the subject of the conversations in the Pilot’s Lounge here at the virtual airport have lingered on issues of aircraft maintenance. If there is one thing that concerns a pilot nearly as much as flying weather or the cost of flying, it is the mechanical condition of the aircraft […]

The pilot lounge at our crew base is just like every other one in the airline universe: some preschool-type art tables with folding chairs and walls covered with cork bulletin boards, which in turn are covered with the flotsam and jetsam of pilot life. There is the usual large screen television showing either the usual […]

I had a incident the other night that really bothered me, so (of course) I started looking for a way to work it into a column. When I see something like this incident, I’m ashamed to admit my first reaction is usually somewhat uncharitable. The thought pops into my head that some people are just […]

I think I’m seeing the rapid growth of yet another OWT (Old Wives’ Tale). Some pilots are going to extraordinary lengths to prevent this badly misunderstood phenomenon, and a few are creating far more danger for themselves and their airplanes as they try to avoid a problem that probably doesn’t exist.I believe the Commemorative Air […]

I was sitting in the pilot’s lounge at the virtual airport, quietly minding my own business and practicing new hand gestures in case I had to go to Brazil, when Mark — one of the local pilots –caromed off the door frame and boomed into the lounge trailed by scraps of yellow paper emitted from […]