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I’ve always thought that flight instruction divides itself into three broad camps: Soviet style, ad hoc and something in between. Soviet style implies rigid adherence to the syllabus and checklist and no improvisation. At its most radical, ad hoc instruction-or flying for that matter-devolves to reducing flying to the level of driving a car, which […]

I was sitting in the exit row of an AirTran 717 last week when I had one of those coincidences of threes that seem to occasionally lift life from the mundane. The flight attendant had just cleared the row of a mother and her daughter, the daughter being too young to legally occupy the seat. […]

I was channel surfing last week and landed on a video clip of Elon Musk blubbering about how no less than certified American icons Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan were bad mouthing Musk’s commercial space initiative. He was close to tears. Actually, in testimony before Congress, Armstrong and Cernan weren’t so much exclusively dissing SpaceX, […]

Today is June 6, a date whose significance in history should need no explanation to anyone who’s moderately informed about World War II. For a number of years now, as the date approaches, I take the time to re-read Cornelius Ryan’s superbly crafted The Longest Day. Now that I’ve got it on my Kindle, I […]

This weekend’s story about a trio of guys motoring around the Midwest in a Cessna 182 chasing tornadoes reminded me of what I don’t see much of anymore: accidents involving penetration of thunderstorms. Twenty years ago, we used to see a couple of dozen of these every year. Now, I’d guess it’s less than half […]

Shortly after we reported on the FAA’s unleaded fuel transition group’s progress last week, I got a couple of e-mails asking exactly what it all means, including one inquiring about what to do about overhauls.That last question is easy. If you need an overhaul, buy an overhaul. Nothing the UAT-ARC has done so far or […]

Since about 1973, the year of the first oil embargo, muddle-headed politicians from both parties have used the absurd idea of “energy independence” as a campaign talking point that rube voters will swill like free beer. But in the ugly trench warfare of daily politics, their actual votes sometimes undermine this supposed apple-pie-and-motherhood, all-purpose good […]

Just as I thought I’d seen everything, along comes Spirit Airlines suing the government for the right to engage in bait-and-switch advertising. You probably saw the story this week.Spirit has taken the idea of unbundling-that is, unbundling everything from the seat except the upholstery (and maybe even that)– and charging extra for it to absolutely […]

Last month, on the drive from our hotel in Austria to the Aero exposition halls in Friedrichshafen, the route carried us over a stretch of one of those famous autobahns with no speed limit. Actually, it may have had a posted limit, but no one was paying any attention to it. I wound up our […]

If you haven’t seen these video reports by CBS on the F-22 Raptor story, they are worth the time to watch. When they first aired on CBS on Sunday evening, I’m sure I missed the first third of what these two officers were saying because my thoughts wandered off wondering what these two will do […]