The Pilot’s Lounge

It was a normal weekend morning in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport; students were either exulting or bemoaning flights they had just completed, a few pilots were debating where they should go for their high-dollar hamburgers and a couple of airplane owners were deep in discussion over the operating costs of their steeds. […]

Much of aviation involves black and white decision-making; we have to do many of the tasks we do in a closely prescribed way or risk dying. There is no appeal or plea bargain for violation of a law of aerodynamics. If we are in a single-engine airplane and the engine quits under about 500 feet […]

A couple of months ago we got into an extended discussion of emergencies here in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport as a result of a gear-up landing gone seriously wrong. The column that evolved generated a fair amount of comment, including one from Dr. Alex Aimette, who has taught surgery for some years […]

AVweb’s Rick Durden recently corresponded with a surgery instructor who described one of the methods he used to teach new surgeons: He had them write down everything that could go wrong during an upcoming operation and then set out what should be done to deal with each anomaly. When he became a pilot, Dr. Aimette […]

Every once in a while something happens that causes me to escape to the Pilot’s Lounge here at the virtual airport after everyone has gone home for the evening. It is an excellent place to go when I need to regain my perspective on matters affecting the world of aviation. Sitting in one of the […]

The lights were on late in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport and the place was packed when I arrived. The big, old recliners had been claimed early by the more senior, or perhaps the lazy; some six-packs of soda and beer were being decimated steadily as the regulars dissected the stunning events of […]

The discussions here in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport range from prosaic to fairly intense. Last Sunday evening some of the regulars returned from their annual mid-October color tour on a particularly windy day and got into it over speeds to fly on the approach. The group had “ooh”-ed and “aahh”-ed at the […]

Old Hack was the instigator. Because of him the Pilot’s Lounge departed the virtual airport in mid-September, and headed for the National Air Races at Reno Stead Airport, north of Reno, Nev., for a serious fix of airplanes flying very fast and very low, while making noise that hits a person right in the gut […]

The shadows were lengthening outside the window of the Pilot’s Lounge here at the virtual airport. From the tattered old lounge chair, I could see that the activity on the ramp was spooling down into “tucking them away for the night” mode. The flight school trainers were being fueled by the line crew and moved […]

Old Hack, our resident curmudgeon, caught me in the Pilot’s Lounge, here at the virtual airport, the other morning. He plopped down in one of the big, old, worn recliners, scowled at me and said, “Hey, I’m the one who’s supposed to look pissed off at the world. If you look more angry at things […]