Safety in flight is not something that happens by chance. In the long term, pilots don’t get lucky. They plan and execute well, or they fly with reckless abandon and take their chances. Maybe they have an accident or maybe they don’t. But there’s no luck involved. It’s just timing. Anyone in any pursuit who […]
Opinion
Set yourself up to say yes
It was Friday morning. The first day of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s last regional fly-in of the year in Tampa, Florida. I’d started the day early, but not bright. Les Smith, AOPA’s Senior Director of Pilot Community, and I met for breakfast before the sun dared show itself over the horizon. We had […]
The art of naming aircraft
Aircraft manufacturers and users have a penchant for picking names for their machines. Sometimes, a name is so good or so universally associated with a manufacturer that it gets recycled on a new design. The Chance Vought company’s first Corsair was in 1926. It was an observation biplane, the O2U, supplanted by the O3U. Fewer […]
Awesome by choice
When I was 15 years old I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. That’s rare, it seems. More often than not teenagers have very little idea what they want to do for a living. In my case, I pursued my dream for far longer than most young men chase their […]
Do you have what it takes to set a world speed record?
On Sept. 2, 2017, Steven Hinton flew “Voodoo” – a highly modified P-51 Mustang – over a 3-kilometer course in Central Idaho at an average speed of 531.272 mph. That speed is the fastest ever achieved for a piston engine propeller-powered airplane. Voodoo’s record attempt was made as an “Aeroplane” in Class C-1 (Landplanes), in […]
Pilot Perspectives: Gordon Alvord
By DEREK ROBERTS. In the shadows of the mid-2000 economic slowdown, many young airline pilots like Gordon Alvord were asked to remain in the employment “holding pattern.” Times were tough for the entire nation and the luxury of air travel for everyday citizens was replaced by necessity. With less money to go around, there were […]
Asleep at the yoke
Falling asleep while flying is something I’ve never done. I remember reading about a flight crew who did, overflying their Hawaiian island destination. I wondered what those two pilots felt in that moment when they both suddenly awoke with land and the airport well behind them. I can only imagine the gut-wrenching feeling they must […]
Graciousness and gratitude in Texas
From time to time, each and every one of us has had a wish. We all hoped for something wonderful to happen, for a gift of such magnitude that all our worries will be wiped away, leaving only joy and contentment in out lives. Ironically, a disconcerting number of people who win the lottery tend […]
Do you know where your wing spars come from?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t often think about where my food comes from. Sad, really, but truthful. I suppose I don’t really think about where most of the “stuff” I consume comes from — including parts and pieces of aircraft. For Ron Piercy, a fishing trip to southeastern Alaska five years ago […]