The Pilot’s Lounge

While in the Pilot’s Lounge here at the virtual airport, I got to checking my email and found one that took me to task for asserting that the Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) created as a result of Hurricane Katrina were ill-conceived and poorly planned. I had complained because of the difficulties reported by some pilots […]

I heard the commotion as I started down the hall from the flight school to the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport. In the few moments it took to get to the door of the Lounge, individual voices became clear, split into two very vocal camps: The vehement “Yes it will!” calls being answered by […]

It was about an hour after sunset at the virtual airport. I was sitting in one of the big recliners in the pilot’s lounge wondering whether the cost of avgas was a great cosmic practical joke and curious as to whether it was possible to calculate just how much weight I’d have to lose to […]

All of us in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport were affected by Hurricane Katrina in some fashion. As I write this, one visitor is still looking for a cousin who lived in New Orleans but did not own a car and was unable to evacuate. Stan, in Mississippi, is repairing damage to his […]

I was in one of the big, tattered recliners in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport, checking e-mail. It’s the way many of the regulars at the Lounge keep in touch. I enjoy the give and take of our exchanges, and from time to time I get comments or questions that raise issues many […]

As is the case with most of us here in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport, my involvement with state aeronautics commissions had, for years, been limited to paying a small annual fee and receiving a nice book that gave information on all of the public-use airports in the state, as well as an […]

Summer finally arrived, so someone stuck up a notice in the Pilot’s Lounge here at the virtual airport that stated we might as well have an airport cookout before Mother Nature changes her mind. On the appointed date the weather cooperated and there was an excellent turnout. It provided an opportunity to chat with some […]

One thing that continues to amaze me about General Aviation, not just here in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport, but everywhere I fly and visit, is the number of pilots who selflessly expend considerable sums of their own money and time to help others. I once tried to analyze why so many pilots […]

It was a sodden, April Saturday afternoon in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport. The first unseasonably warm days of spring had brought out the tulips, hyacinths and optimistic pilots in droves. Frustratingly, on this weekend the weather had reverted to the precipitation that has been reputed to bring flowers in the subsequent month. […]

From time to time, we who frequent the Pilot’s Lounge here at the virtual airport put on an evening seminar in which presentations are given on topics of interest to us. Attendance varies, but is usually large enough to fill most of the chairs we borrow from the You Stab ‘Em, We Slab ‘Em Funeral […]