FBOs

Frankly, I never dreamed this series would last for five or six columns! It has been an incredible effort, and an interesting journey for me. Now that I’ve gotten you up to altitude (see “Pelican’s Perch #34“) – and left you there for a month – it’s time to set up for cruise. Mar 12, […]

It was one of those good evenings at AirVenture Oshkosh, the kind that reminds you why you return each year. The Pilot’s Lounge had moved bodily to a spot under the wing of Jay Apt’s Twin Beech. We had survived Doc Blue’s birthday party, including the part where he had surrounded the area where the […]

John Richard Rossi was born April19, 1915, in Placerville, Calif. He grew up in San Francisco and split hiscollege years between the University of California at Berkeley and the merchantmarine. He entered the Navy for flight training in the fall of 1939. Uponreceiving his wings and commission in 1940, he was assigned as Flight Instructorat […]

Not long ago, I was in the office of the Chief Flight Instructor at an FAA Part 141 approved flight school when a young man came in fresh from passing his Private Pilot certification check ride. Amid all the congratulations, one of the things the chief instructor told him was that he should start his […]

We’ve now beaten the technical issues to death, let’s go fly! If you haven’t read any of the prior material on this, please don’t fail to see “Those Fire-Breathing Turbos (Part 3).” This column is highly specific to the “turbonormalizer” systems as installed on Teledyne Continental Motors (TCM) “big bore” engines like the IO-520 and […]

It’s a bit disconcerting when it happens. Every once in a great while someone says something that causes your jaw to drop in utter amazement. You stare at the person who just made the statement because you can’t comprehend its magnitude. Meanwhile, your tonsils are attracting flies. It happened to me recently, here in the […]

Rich Stowell was born December 24,1957, in Newton, N. J. He grew up near Sussex, N. J., watching his neighbors LeoLoudenslager, Betty Stewart and other aerobatic champions performing theirairshow routines. He wanted to fly and took enough instruction to solo. Hisparents didn’t exactly disapprove, but they vectored Rich back onto a moretraditional career path. He […]

Several years ago, a designated pilot examiner was in the habit of asking his private applicants one question to fulfill the oral portion of the practical test, and only one. The question was this: “Which control makes the airplane go up?” If the applicant answered that the throttle makes it go up, he passed, but […]

I‘m a little nervous writing stuff like this, because I am acutely aware that not all readers are the same. Some will read this column by itself, without reading the material in previous columns that has led up to this point. Some don’t care about the dirty details, and simply want to know what to […]

Of Flight Breakfasts, Air Races and Roll Your Own Fly-Ins It’s August in the Pilot’s Lounge. The heat shimmers off the asphalt, the trainers seem to sag into the air and the regulars in the big, easy chairs are out of sorts. Hack is complaining that he wants to go somewhere in the Super Cruiser […]