Flight Safety

Growing up in Ohio, I lived andbreathed airplanes. We rode our bikes out to the grass strip at the edge of town to watchthe flying and play around the hangers. We built countless model airplanes. Throughout itall, the idea of actually learning to fly never occurred to me, even when my collegeroommate took lessons. I […]

NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARDWASHINGTON, D.C. 20594 AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT REPORT Accident occurred JUN-06-97 at TILLAMOOK, ORAircraft: Lockheed P-38L, registration: N7973 Injuries: 1 Fatal. The aircraft (P-38) had been topped off with full reserve & main fuel tanks (44 USgal/engine reserve tanks & 72 gal/engine main tanks). The pilot took off with about 20minutes fuel having been […]

Let’s take a little time off from the hardcore technical stuff, and have a little fun. One of my favorite stories involves a pig, but first, allow me to set the stage, jump up and down on my soapbox, rave a little, then tell the story. From 1963 through 1968, I had the incredible honor […]

The instrument rating checkride was the next morning. I wasready. N8236N was washed and polished and oiled and fueled and I had the logbooksthoroughly analyzed. There were bookmarks (these were the olden days, kids, we didn’t havesticky notes) to note the location of all required inspections and ADs. The static systemand altimeter had been freshly […]

Last month, I passed along some cold-weather operatingtechniques put together by the denizens of the pilot’s lounge here at our virtual airport.In the process, I mentioned the father of cold weather flying, Bernt Balchen, and said I’dtell you a little more about him this month. In the interim, I’ve also received somefeedback on cold weather […]

Pitch to Altitudeand Power to Airspeed?… or Power to Altitude and Pitch to Airspeed? Several years ago, a pilot examiner of my acquaintance would askhis private applicants one question and one question only during the oral portion of aflight test. The question was, “Which control makes the airplane go up?” If theapplicant answered, “The throttle […]

NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARDPublic Meeting of January 26, 1999(Subject to Editing) Aircraft Accident involving John DenverIn Flight Collision with Terrain/WaterOctober 12, 1997Pacific Ocean near Pacific Grove, CALAX-98-FA008 Probable Cause | Safety Recommendations EXECUTIVE SUMMARY On October 12, 1997, about 1728 Pacific daylight time, an experimental category, amateur-built Adrian Davis Long-EZ airplane, N555JD, crashed into the […]

Can’t breathe welder’soxygen? Aw, horsefeathers, as my dad used to say! Show me the rule! Oxygen is oxygen. It is the substance that matters, not the intended purpose. Thesedays, welding, medical, and aviation oxygen are exactly the same. All three come from thesame tank of liquid oxygen (LOX). The liquified form is the cleanest, purest, […]

It had been a very good winter day. About adozen of us stuck around here in the pilot’s lounge after the sun went down, even thoughsnow was falling and a blizzard was forecast. We were getting warm after dealing with thechallenges of working with little airplanes in cold weather and talking about our daysand, of […]

I, too, was surprised to read in the Oregonian article on the 20-year reunion of thecrash of UA173 that faulty fuel gauges were attributed to the crash. That is the firsttime I had heard about that. I was one of the Portland International FAA Air TrafficControllers on duty that fateful evening. I was working arrival […]