Bob Lock was a good ol’ boy, in the best sense of the word. You may have known him. If not, you almost certainly know someone who did. Aviation is a tight-knit, fairly small community of individuals who somehow manage to cross paths with one another somewhere or other as they walk along the road […]
Politics for Pilots
Live your life
In recent months the general population of the western world has been on the receiving end of a series of body blows that have left many of us leaning on the ropes, too weakened to stand fully upright under the onslaught. Death has come to the celebrities we love, and it’s shaken us to our […]
Even with the best of intentions, a good plan is essential
This past Saturday the Central Florida Flying Club (of which I am a member) held its first annual Spring Fling cook-out. We threw the hangar door open to anyone who cared to wander through it. The grill was fired up, the refrigerator was stocked, we rented additional tables and chairs, and even rolled the aircraft out […]
Follow-up: It’s good manners and good business.
After a long, hard, sun-soaked week in Lakeland, Florida, at the SUN ‘n FUN International Fly-In and Expo, thousands of aeronautically minded folks fled the field with their aviation jones fully satisfied, headed in the general direction of home. I joined that group, too. With a smile on my face and a song in my heart, […]
AOPA gets serious about flying clubs
Believing in a concept can be a noble thing. Seeing the benefits, sharing ideas, and gathering information to prove your point are all valuable steps that most of us take at one time or another, on some topic. Actually doing something is an altogether different thing. The point at which a belief transitions from a […]
A long trip to a big impact
After playing around at a handful of local flight schools, FBO run operations, and with a plethora of flight instructors, some of whom were good, some not so much, I made the decision to commit to a more structured arrangement with a big-time flight school. That was in 1990, two years into my flight training […]
A little rain must fall
Precipitation is on my mind, as my friends in Texas, Louisiana, and yes, even California have recently been dealing with moisture from the sky. Some of them have been struggling with rain coming down in large quantities. It happens, thank goodness. After all, rain gives life. But rain also causes calamity and mayhem. Like so much […]
Authentically, actually you
Because I often deal with the non-flying public in venues where my affection for aviation becomes a topic of conversation, I’ve become fascinated by the limits people put on themselves. I often talk to people who profess to want to fly. They wish they could. They dream they can. They imagine the wonder of it […]
I searched for excellence — and I found it
In many ways I’m a creature of habit. Of course, some habits are more obvious than others. For instance, I eat every day. More than I need to, in fact. That’s a habit. Not a particularly good one, and not one that I am proud of, but it is a habit, so I include it […]