The Pilot’s Lounge

There is a deep, abiding pleasure in discovering a place that is somehow both pilot- and family-friendly; where a pilot can share the joy he or she feels when in the sky with the most important people in his or her life. Not long after I had listened in on a gripe session in the […]

It is a sure sign of old age that you spend your time talking about the past. I almost never do unless asked. Today I found myself getting a hundred-dollar hamburger at an airport greasy spoon with a teenage student pilot son of a friend. He wanted me to tell him some “true stories” about […]

From time to time it happens that several of the flight instructors here at the virtual airport wind up in the pilot’s lounge talking about all manner of things aeronautical. When that I happens, I may delay my drive home because the exchange is usually on a higher plane (sorry) than the usual “There I […]

There are days in the pilots lounge at the virtual airport that I learn by just sitting and listening to my betters. It so happened that I recently had an opportunity to pick up some pointers on dealing with emergencies due to a drama that played itself out over two days. Not surprisingly, Old Hack […]

According to Garrison Keillor, Lake Woebegone always has quiet weeks. That isn’t the case here in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. We have been known to have some pretty raucous moments; particularly if Old Hack and a couple of other folks show up at the […]

Last month I said that this month’s column was going to be the third in the series on flying tailwheel airplanes. In working on it, I have spent quite a bit of time in the Pilot’s Lounge here at the virtual airport, and received a lot of very good feedback on the subject. I’ve enjoyed […]

Ordinarily, as summer winds down here at the virtual airport, the Pilot’s Lounge regulars are engrossed in planning their hundred-dollar-hamburger trips in directions that will give them the best scenery as the fall colors start to show. But this year, discussion of the continued high level of incompetence at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and […]

I could hear the noise emanating from the pilot’s lounge here at the virtual airport well before I got to the door. I recognized the voice that was underway at full steam. As I considered the identity of its operator, I was reminded of one of my grandfather’s favorite aphorisms: An empty wagon makes the […]

I just finished giving my favorite curmudgeon here at the virtual airport, Old Hack, his flight review. He had the windows of his Super Cruiser open, so the pleasant breeze was a nice bonus to a flight that went well. After we flew, we went back to the big chairs in the pilot’s lounge to […]

I was sitting in one of the big chairs here in the pilot’s lounge at the virtual airport when I read that the president, on June 6, 2002, had signed an executive order dictating that air traffic control is no longer an inherently federal function. That act was a significant procedural step toward imposition of […]