Jennifer Julian, 54, is a double lung transplant survivor. Scratch survivor. She’s a “thriver.” And today, she is a student pilot. Julian, who live in Castro Valley, Calif., was first diagnosed with lung disease in 1998. As her health deteriorated following the diagnosis, she began to wonder if the doctors at Stanford would be able […]
flying
FBO reaches out to VIPs
Bill Moltenbrey of Business Jet Center (BJC) at Dallas Love Field has added one more job to his growing list of duties — cleaning up after the FBO’s four-legged customers. On a busy day at the FBO, Moltenbrey is the go-to guy who pitches in and gets things moving. He is often seen with a […]
A gift to remember
Jim Torphy has celebrated quite a few birthdays over the course of his life. At 90 years old, his personal anniversary has become somewhat more impressive though, and so his birthday party last month surpassed what most of us go through each year by quite a bit. Torphy is a pilot. In fact, he’s a […]
Cancer diagnosis leads pilot to pen memoir
Angela McCartney Miro and her brother James F. McCartney recently teamed up to write a memoir on his aviation career in “Jim McCartney: My Life in Flight.” After being diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer, McCartney said he wanted to record his experiences in the air to pay tribute to his friends in aviation. McCartney […]
Making safer general aviation pilots
Many years ago when I took my Commercial checkride, the Designated Pilot Examiner told me that a pilot’s commitment to safety ebbs and flows. We are at our safest right after a checkride. As we gain experience, our vigilance can diminish, replaced by a new-found confidence that can lead to complacency. Over the years efforts […]
Charmed lives are chosen
Our choices can lead us to amazing destinations…or nowhere. “This kind of flying,” was Bill Langdon’s answer to my asking, “What kind of flying do you mostly do?” We’d just lifted off from the back country mountain strip at the Minam River Lodge en route to nearby Joseph, Oregon, with a load of trash. [You […]
Winners and losers
Regardless of what kind of business you are in, there is one common component that has massive influence on whether you experience economic success or disaster. That component is known as the customer. Yep, customers are the magic elixir of business, regardless of whether you’re selling toothpaste, muscle cars, or flight lessons. In the end […]
Looking for Clint Eastwood
Folks haven’t seen us around the airport much for the past few weeks. An early and long spring has put the Old Man into a planting and building fervor. You name the vegetable and it’s probably planted in our garden. It’s really nice to have fresh produce, but many of the vegetables he planted in […]
SAFE in space
The Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE) recently entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Orbital Commerce Project (OCP) “to promote safety in the Commercial Human Spaceflight industry through excellence in training and education.” The two organizations will team up on initiatives that include: Working with the Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST) […]