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 […]
Opinion
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 […]
Rethinking the ROI of your life
It’s rare that a week goes by that I don’t get an inquiry from someone, somewhere, about their desire to become a pilot. Or if not a pilot, to find some role in general aviation as a real participant. Aviation is an attractive business. One might go so far as to say it’s sexy. At […]
Big achievements by a small manufacturer
“It simply won’t work,” say too many pilots. “You cannot run a business making only 50 airplanes a year. To build good, safe airplanes, you must operate a large enterprise.” If you are one of those naysayers, are you sure about that? I write about the world of light aviation, a segment of recreational aircraft […]
What should I do about rust in the barrels of cylinders?
Q: I read some of the material you have posted and was very impressed. I have a question about finding rust in the barrels of the cylinders. Here is the situation: A customer is looking to buy a Piper Lance II. It was asked that we do an annual instead of a pre-buy inspection. The engine […]
It’s a short trip from rusty to restored
Years ago I read a passage written by Richard Bach that has stuck with me. While I can’t quote it, and frankly I can’t even remember which book it comes from, Richard left the impression that flight instruction was a noble calling. He wrote about the satisfaction that comes from passing on to a new […]
How airplanes became aerial ambulances
If World War I showed the nations of the world how the airplane could vault over ground emplacements to strike at an enemy, the combatants also came to appreciate the efficacy of using aircraft as ambulances to surmount obstacles and save precious time flying away from the fray. During that war, U.S. Army aviation devised […]
Consideration — or the lack of it
We were on an out and back — Dulles to Newark, Newark to Dulles. Our assigned aircraft had just come out of maintenance. The captain flew the Newark leg. No issues. I flew us back to Dulles. We landed uneventfully on Runway 19R. I applied the reverse thrusters, and then I applied the brakes. That’s […]