Flight Safety

The recent loss of Alaska Airlines 261 waslike an unexpected hard punch in the gut for me, and for everyone in the airline business,because we know that Alaska is one of the very finest airlines, with excellent attitudesprevailing in the cockpits and cabins, good equipment, good maintenance, good training,and highly skilled pilots who operate in […]

Sincethe dawn of aviation, generations of pilots and would-be pilots have lustedafter that which God did not give them. No, not wings — they want perfectvision. In addition to the annoyance faced by mere mortals who have to wearglasses or contacts, pilots around the world also must deal with stringentvisual standards from civil aviation authorities […]

BetterJob? I become quite upset when I hear a youngflight instructor announce that he/she is just teaching until a “goodjob” or a “better job” in aviation comes along. I want you toknow – there is no higher calling for an aviator than to be a reallyfirst-class, professional flight instructor. There is no better job! And […]

Cliff Robertson was born in La Jolla,Calif,. and saw his first airplane at age five. By age 13, he was a dedicated hangarrat and his reward for washing and waxing was a little unofficial stick time. Years later,in the suburbs of London, the urge to fly surfaced again and hasn’t gone away since. Cliff is […]

Oneof the regulars here at the Pilot’s Lounge went through an interesting processrecently. Armando made the decision to obtain his flight instructor certificate.He has a full time job that pays reasonably well so he probably isn’t going tochange careers. Some of the other regulars thought he was crazy to spend themoney to get what is […]

Myfirst Aerostar, a 1974 600A, came equipped with a Wulfsberg Flightphone I. Thiswas a manually-operated early model — “New York operator, this is QM-2602I’d like to call 215-555-5575 please…” — and was only half-duplex. Thatmeant only one person could speak at a time; “I’ll be home at 6:30 …over,” I’d say to hear my wife […]

Elbert Rutan was born in Dinuba, Calif., inJune 1943. After receiving a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from Cal Poly, he worked forthe U. S. Air Force as a Flight Test Project Engineer at Edwards AFB, Calif., until 1972.After two years designing and developing the Bede BD-J5 he formed RAF, the Rutan AircraftFactory. For the next […]

Oneof the things that has always driven me crazy about the commercial first aid kits that youfind in drugstores and pilot supply catalogs is that they’re filled with crap that istotally useless … and sometimes even harmful. Never one to be soft-spoken orunopinionated, I have tried to make my feelings known (vigorously) to variousmanufacturers of […]

When you arrived at Plant City you were on a VFR flight plan. What was your original plan for the day? I started in Melbourne. I was building cross-country time for my instrument rating. I want to get the instrument rating first, then I’ll have enough hours to go right into the commercial rating. At […]

I am not proud of this all-too-true story.It demonstrates incredible stupidity and poor judgment on my part, and it is the closest Ishall ever come to dying without doing so. I have told the story to only a very smallhandful of people, and I am certain that some of those probably don’t believe it, as […]