I was sitting in the terminal building in Orlando on my way home from SUN ’n FUN when my cell phone rang. “Meg, this is Peggy Boyd…” she began. Peggy is the wife of Dean Boyd, my friend and aviation mentor of some 20 years. The tone of her voice told me before she got the […]
Opinion
Whistleblowers highlight safety issues
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FAA has the highest per employee whistleblower count in government. This startling statistic was sent to the President and Congress in a letter from the Office of Special Counsel, the agency responsible for protecting government employees who report problems where they work. Carolyn Lerner, the attorney who drafted the report, said […]
Wanna go for a ride?
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — Whenever someone asks…”Do you wanna go for a ride?”… I hope your default answer is yes. AeroMark‘s Thomas Hoff grabbed my elbow, pointed at Addison Pemberton’s Boeing Model 40C on his ramp and asked, “You wanna go for a ride?”. Uh, YEAH… Five minutes later, me, Tom and Ivy and Ginny […]
Are you vulnerable to a default attack?
By DAVE HOOK. This is a quick warning concerning CCTV systems. If you continue to use the default username and password for your Internet-based, remote-viewing-enabled CCTV cameras, you may have already been hacked, according to Wired Magazine’s Kim Zetter. Knowing a legitimate username and password pair is the basis for a soft attack against information […]
Don’t ask, don’t tell
It’s no surprise to anyone in the aviation industry to hear that the pilot population is shrinking. Sure, it’s sad – but it’s not a surprise. We all know it’s shrinking. If only there were something we could do to reverse that trend. Good news — there is. In fact that trend can be reversed […]
Security toolkit from across the pond
By DAVE HOOK. I want to share a resource with you that takes high level security concepts and brings them down to earth. Do you want to know the latest ideas on security lighting? Maybe you don’t, not because security lighting isn’t important, but perhaps you’re too busy to read and digest the meaning of […]
An open letter to President Obama
By DAVE HOOK. I want to thank all who took the time to respond to my previous blog, “Couldn’t sign the user fee petition? Here’s help.” As promised, I sent your names and information to the White House as the attachment to the cover letter below. This response was sent both by email and the […]
Much ado about nothing
LeRoy Brown should hate me, but he doesn’t. He should at least be mad at me, but he isn’t — and for that I’m eternally grateful. You see, I met LeRoy in the worst of circumstances for an editor. We had published a story from a freelancer that told of the long-ago exploits of a […]
Rotax launches new 912 iS fuel-injected engine
In a product launch somewhat comparable to an Apple product event, BRP Rotax recently drew a large group of attendees to its facility in Gunskirchen, Austria, to launch its new 912 iS engine. In the tech world, “i” means Internet. In the light aviation world, or more specifically BRP Rotax’s world, “i” now means injected. […]