In America it began in 1793, on the day Jean Blanchard piloted a balloon from Philadelphia to Woodbury, New Jersey. That’s barely a hop, skip, and a jump today. In a time when George Washington was still alive, it was a mind-blowing achievement. It happened again in 1860 when Sam King took photographer James Black […]
Politics for Pilots
A little turbulence is good for you
As a soft, bald, late middle-age, goofball who still hasn’t figured out exactly what I want to do with my life, I can say this with complete confidence: I hope for smooth sailing. It’s what I shoot for. Of all the people you’ll meet in life, I am not the one who has a penchant […]
One helping of humble pie, please
Often, the purpose of a column like this is to create an opportunity to begin a discussion. By opening the floor to a wide-ranging collection of potential readers, especially because many of those readers can share real insights and personal experiences on the topics raised, the community as a whole can benefit. That sounds good […]
Ask an expert
Last week saw the launch of the 2017 fly-in season as the gates to the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, Florida, flew open. Thousands of attendees filed through the main terminal building, where Garmin and Spencer Aircraft, and the Flying Musicians Association had taken up residence. The Florida Aviation Network broadcast interviews with notables […]
Two pilots walk into a bar …
One of the truly unique facets of aviation that increasingly appeals to me is the expectation that pilots will perform as professionals in the cockpit. They can joke, or not. They can talk about their favorite movie, or song, or fashion trend — or they can just stick to the requirements of the flight. The job […]
Buy, buy, buy
A commodity is an object, a food product, or a raw material that is bought and sold on the open market. Commodities have value — a value that shifts constantly as a result of the vagaries of supply and demand. If there’s a hard freeze in Florida, orange juice prices rise. If OPEC floods the market with […]
Brace for impact
For those of us who fly, the appeal of being airborne energizes us and primes the pump that pushes us through ground school, flight training, and testing. Should you make a career out of what most people think of as a rich man’s hobby, that education and testing never stops. My interest in aviation started […]
Peeling back the layers of an aeronautical onion
Last week one of my kids jumped on a transport category aircraft and flew more than a thousand miles north, to New York City. She ate dinner in central Florida, but found herself on the island of Manhattan before midnight. While she was en route, I monitored her flight using an app on my phone. […]
Rewiring the machinery
As a species, human beings are dissatisfied with the status quo. Thank goodness. Virtually all the great developments in technology, the massive leaps in scientific achievement, have come about because someone was fed up with their perceived limitations. They rebelled. They overcame. Often in the face of real physical and financial peril, they improved the […]