The Pilot’s Lounge

Winter in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport can be pretty slow, with days of low overcast and generally lousy flying weather. Either no one comes out to the airport and our flight-school owner starts to panic over whether last summer’s revenues can be stretched through the winter, or a lot of people come […]

It had started as a run out to the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport to check on plans for our annual end-of-the-year bacchanal and ended up with me wandering into a chance to learn from my betters. Sandy, our airline pilot, lost a friend of hers in a post-takeoff crash a few years back. […]

Overhead, the massive, wide-chord blades begin rotating. Behind me the whine of the turbine builds as Walt Plentis goes through the start sequence and the 1800 horses of the Lycoming T53 collectively ask if we know what we’re doing, if we really want to wake them up to power a two-place aircraft. Walt assures them […]

The Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport was days and many miles away from the chair to which I was affixing myself with a seat belt and shoulder harness. I had foolishly started my travels via a ground conveyance that had proven its utility by breaking down rather spectacularly in rural Missouri. I managed the […]

I doubt a day goes by without someone here in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport expressing concern about the diminishing number of pilots in the U.S. and the seeming lack of interest on the part of young people in learning to fly. There are evenings when the subject is batted around endlessly, yet […]

We just had a little excitement in the Pilot’s Lounge, here at the virtual airport. No, Old Hack didn’t get into another fight with someone over nosewheel versus tailwheel pilots; one of the charter pilots actually had one of the engines on a twin Cessna quit on him in flight. I’ll refer to him as […]

One of the most enjoyable things about frequenting the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport is getting to spend time with some very interesting people who are determined to live their lives fully; who are always reaching out to do things that enrich their existence and that of others. Part of the fascination of spending […]

I‘d driven out to the virtual airport before dawn on a Saturday morning. It only took moments to slip into the Pilot’s Lounge, load the coffee machine and push the start button, leave the box of fresh doughnuts I’d brought next to it and hurry out to where the Great Lakes was tied down. I […]

The atmosphere in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport has been decidedly unpleasant over the last several weeks. About half of the pilots here rely on telephone briefings with Flight Service to get their aviation weather information and file flight plans. As any pilot in the U.S. is now aware, the Lockheed-Martin takeover of […]

Last week we had a little celebration in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport. One of the students passed his Private Pilot checkride, so the flight school put out soft drinks and snacks. It’s something the flight school does when someone completes a rating. I like it. I think it goes a long way […]