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Like a lot of pilots, I’m a little afraid of heights. I’m fine on ladders and roofs but looking over railings on tall bridges or edging toward a cliff edge sets my inner ear off.Flying or flying in an aircraft doesn’t bother me in the slightest, regardless of the attitude or altitude. Those of us […]

When the Space Shuttle lands-which it did this morning for the last time-it lights up the west coast of Florida with a resounding double sonic-boom. It’s not subtle, either. It rattles the windows to the point that even when you know what it is, you ask…what the hell was that?I missed it this morning. The […]

The crowds at Oshkosh are the best in the world, because they are fans, not spectators — that’s what airshow pilot Mike Goulian told me last week — and that makes all the difference. His remarks struck me because I had just been at an airshow a few weeks before, and had been wondering what […]

Another week, another warbird lost-this time, a P-51 involved in a mid-air at the Duxford Flying Legends show in the UK. Watching the video made me wonder if that Skyraider pilot is gonna get an earful about rolling into a turn and losing sight of the P-51. I’ll let the warbird guys figure that one […]

Now that we’ve once again taken Sen. James Inhofe to task for landing on a closed runway last fall in Port Isabel, Texas, it’s worth asking this question: What’s so wrong with doing this in the first place? The simple answer is nothing at all, as long as no one is endangered and/ or complains. […]

Don’t see a video screen?Try disabling ad blockers and refreshing this page.If that doesn’t work, click here to download the video directly. If you like your irony spread as thick as apple butter on biscuits, you’ll enjoy this recent speech by Senator James Inhofe in the U.S. Senate. (mirrored at right) The occasion of the […]

A pilot friend asked me the other day for an update on the LightSquared vs. GPS saga, and in a nutshell, my summary was, “It’s kind of a mess, but I wouldn’t worry about it.” I could be proven wrong — predicting the future is always a risky business — but I’ve seen lots of […]

Don’t see a video screen?Try disabling ad blockers and refreshing this page.If that doesn’t work, click here to download the video directly. When I first heard of LightSquared’s ambitious plan to blanket the U.S. with wireless broadband and, apparently smother GPS at the same time my reaction was the same as most of those I […]

You have to wonder what it’s going to take to drag the FAA into the 21st century with regard to what might best be called fatigue management. Last week, it announced a new agreement with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association to address fatigue issue on all shifts, but especially the mid-shift, between 10 p.m. […]

Billy Wilder’s incomparable Spirit of St. Louis hit the theatres in 1957, and seeing it was one of my earliest memories. There are a dozen memorable portraits in that film, but one that’s stuck with me was the famous knothole scene in which Lindbergh, played by Jimmy Stewart, explains his course to Paris on a […]