Thanks to a stroke of good luck and a bit of favorable geographic proximity, I got to spend some time at the Women in Aviation Conference held in Orlando, Florida, last week. If you missed it, let me tell you, you really did miss something. This is no idle gathering of vacationers disguised as convention […]
General Aviation wins a convert
The situation came to my attention thanks to a post on social media. A woman I went to high school with reached out looking for comfort. My former classmate’s post began, “Due to complicated weather conditions yesterday, flights to the northeast were all cancelled.” That happens, unfortunately, Inclement weather can cause delays and even cancellations […]
Reveling in the Field Effect
In America it began in 1793, on the day Jean Blanchard piloted a balloon from Philadelphia to Woodbury, New Jersey. That’s barely a hop, skip, and a jump today. In a time when George Washington was still alive, it was a mind-blowing achievement. It happened again in 1860 when Sam King took photographer James Black […]
A little turbulence is good for you
As a soft, bald, late middle-age, goofball who still hasn’t figured out exactly what I want to do with my life, I can say this with complete confidence: I hope for smooth sailing. It’s what I shoot for. Of all the people you’ll meet in life, I am not the one who has a penchant […]
One helping of humble pie, please
Often, the purpose of a column like this is to create an opportunity to begin a discussion. By opening the floor to a wide-ranging collection of potential readers, especially because many of those readers can share real insights and personal experiences on the topics raised, the community as a whole can benefit. That sounds good […]
Ask an expert
Last week saw the launch of the 2017 fly-in season as the gates to the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, Florida, flew open. Thousands of attendees filed through the main terminal building, where Garmin and Spencer Aircraft, and the Flying Musicians Association had taken up residence. The Florida Aviation Network broadcast interviews with notables […]
Two pilots walk into a bar …
One of the truly unique facets of aviation that increasingly appeals to me is the expectation that pilots will perform as professionals in the cockpit. They can joke, or not. They can talk about their favorite movie, or song, or fashion trend — or they can just stick to the requirements of the flight. The job […]
Buy, buy, buy
A commodity is an object, a food product, or a raw material that is bought and sold on the open market. Commodities have value — a value that shifts constantly as a result of the vagaries of supply and demand. If there’s a hard freeze in Florida, orange juice prices rise. If OPEC floods the market with […]
Brace for impact
For those of us who fly, the appeal of being airborne energizes us and primes the pump that pushes us through ground school, flight training, and testing. Should you make a career out of what most people think of as a rich man’s hobby, that education and testing never stops. My interest in aviation started […]