In the more than quarter century I’ve been a Certificated Flight Instructor, I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve had people ask about the FAA WINGS program. My take-away from all those conversations is this: Most of us don’t really understand what the WINGS program is. That stinging rebuke applies to […]
Politics for Pilots
Hardware is not the issue
Like pretty much everyone else involved in aviation, I frequently engage with people who say things like, “Oh, I could never fly an airplane. They’re too dangerous.” These same people limit the scope of their lives with similar comments about motorcycles and other pieces of hardware that are widely perceived as too dangerous for the […]
Opportunity is knocking…hard
It’s a well-worn bromide of our society: “Children are our future.” Yet, in real life we tend not to conduct ourselves as if we believe that to be true. Another more specifically instructive aphorism suggests, “When opportunity knocks…open the door.” Let’s consider that second quote for a moment. Two weeks from this moment, opportunity will […]
R.E.S.P.O.N.S.I.B.I.L.I.T.Y.
Not long ago, I did something stupid in an airplane. Gulp. The scenario looked like this: I departed a non-towered airport that lies under Class B airspace. As my flight home was a short one, I didn’t use Flight Following, as I normally would. Instead I simply took off, climbed to 2,000 feet, and settled in […]
The other call of the wild
When I’m in my own home town, which is a good portion of the time, I walk a lot. It’s an old habit, one I adopted as a public school student. My assigned school bus stop was two miles from my parent’s house. The bus stop was on a hard road, but our home sat […]
The caretaker’s task
Of all the mass produced airplanes ever to come off an assembly line, anywhere in the world, there may be no more iconic a flying machine than the humble Piper J3 Cub. First built in 1937, production of the Cub lasted a mere 10 years. By the time the Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, production line closed down […]
Not quite deja vu
Although I am a huge and unrepentant advocate for general aviation, my first exposure to flight involved a big aluminum tube powered by four round engines. Eastern Airlines was the carrier. Bradley Field in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, was the departure point. Gainesville, Florida, was the destination, with a change of airplanes in Atlanta. I was […]
From here to there and back again
My friend Eirlys is a youthful ball of fire. She’s just 18 years old. As of last week she’s now an official high school graduate, with a diploma to prove it. If all goes well, and weather permitting, she’ll be a brand new private pilot by the end of next week. She’s really something. I ran […]
If at first you don’t succeed…
In 1992 I stumbled across the first airplane I ever seriously considered buying. I was a hard-working CFI back then. My income wasn’t going to set the world on fire, but maybe, just maybe I could find a way to buy the classic T-craft with the faded “For Sale” sign behind its windshield. Even though […]