A cell phone fire onboard a Southwest Airlines jet parked at the jetway made news recently. Apparently, the phone was off and in the passenger’s pocket when it ignited. He managed to yank it from his pocket and throw it to the floor. The phone promptly set the carpet on fire before both were extinguished. […]
Opinion
On a scale of 1 to 10…
General aviation airports are my happy place. There’s no denying that. Often I stop into my hangar just to sit peacefully in the usually quiet confines of the non-towered airport environment I call home. Sometimes a friend drops by to pass the time of day, or share an interesting tidbit of information, or ask for […]
An excellent depiction of when the everyman went to war
Today, as has been the case since the birth of aviation, there are a fair number of celebrity pilots. It’s only natural I suppose. At their core, celebrities are ordinary people, driven by many of the same dreams as anyone else. For actors, they make it their profession to represent the rest of us in […]
The easiest certificate ever
It has been a LONG time since I’ve added a rating or certificate to my pilot qualifications. But I’ve just added the easiest certificate ever. If I understand it correctly — and that’s a big if — I’ve just earned a Remote Pilot Certificate with a Small Unmanned Aircraft System Rating. How easy was it to add […]
Ask Paul: Cylinders and safety
Q: I have come across your name looking for answers to the following: We had to rebuild a Lycoming 0-540-J3C5D with normal wide deck cylinders instead of the thin wide deck cylinders nine years ago and 800 flying hours. This engine just came in for a cam shaft change. Our question is can we continue the rest of the engine’s life […]
Getting the word out in a big way
This past week my Sunday paper included a story you would have enjoyed. The photos were of three young women, each standing proudly beside an airplane. Two were beside a Piper Cub, while the third leaned casually against a Cessna 150. One is a CFI, the other two are high school students who just happen […]
The genesis of ‘Hold my beer, watch this’?
“The New York Times called it a ‘fine landing’ and reported it had been widely called ‘a feat of aeronautics.’” A friend passed the story to me from the popular Imgur website. According to the June 4, 2016 New York Times story, Thomas Fitzpatrick landed a stolen plane “on St. Nicholas Avenue in northern Manhattan,” […]
One of aviation’s guilty pleasures
By JEB BURNSIDE. “If you have time to spare, go by air” is one of many truisms associated with traveling by aircraft. It’s perhaps rooted most deeply in general aviation, where no matter how hard we may try, a schedule is merely a guideline — which means a lot of waiting. Glance around a typical FBO […]
Finding safety, longevity, and diversity in numbers
Living beings have a strong tendency to travel in packs, schools, prides, pods, or convocations. Whether they find a home in the sea, on the land, or in the air, living in a congregation is the norm more often than not. Even early humans lived and travelled in tribes for very good reason. This propensity […]