While there are plenty of reasons to hang your head and lament the difficulty of making a difference in your community, it is not impossible to have a positive effect. Hard? You betcha. Impossible? Not hardly. There is reason for real hope even when the hill seems unimaginably steep and the burden feels too heavy […]
Politics for Pilots
The secret is out — finally
Shhhh. I’m going to trust you to keep this to yourself. It’s a secret. It has been for years. Yet, I’m going to tell you the truth. Here. Now. Only a few sentences hence. Now, if I’m going to be completely honest, I have to admit the paragraph you just read is hyperbole. I’ve used […]
New friends, old friends, and cherished memories
Later this week I’ll be flying from Lakeland, Florida to Lowcountry Regional Airport in South Carolina. I’m flying there in a shiny, nearly new, totally rebuilt Cessna 152. As hard as it may be to believe, I’ll be meeting a new friend who will be flying an almost identical airplane in from the frozen north. […]
Baby, it’s cold outside
If you live in the eastern half of the United States, you may have noticed that nature has turned a bit nippy lately. Even in the deep south they’ve felt the brisk embrace of winter’s furious freeze. There’s no getting around it. It’s some kind of cold out there, and frankly, I don’t care for […]
Riding out of town on a rail
The plan was simple: I was going to hop into the trusty Cessna 152, point it to the north, and fly for just shy of 1,000 miles into the wintery wonderland known as Maryland. That was what I said I was going to do anyway. What I actually did was drive less than two miles to […]
Lure them with pancakes, hook them with adventure
EAA Chapter 1067 is based in Naples, Florida. There are worse places to be in February, I can tell you. But there are few better. What attracted me is what attracts so many to the back corner of the T-hangars at Naples, directly across from the shade hangars, right along the fence line where EAA […]
The conundrum of general aviation
It will come as no surprise to you, a general aviation enthusiast, that the United States contains a considerable number of airports. Even so, the actual number of airports may be higher than you imagine. Higher by quite a bit, frankly. Our non-aviation enthusiast counterparts may feel differently, however. They may learn that in 2004 […]
If it’s about who you know…
When I was a young man headed out into the world, trying to make a success of myself, there was an expression I heard over and over again: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” The subtext was clear. No matter how smart or capable or driven you might be, it would not […]
Airshow etiquette: Look, but don’t touch
Once, when I was a teenager manning the pumps at a full service gas station, a gentleman rolled up in a gorgeous Rolls Royce. He claimed it had previously belonged to the velvety-voiced crooner Nat “King” Cole. You can imagine my surprise when he climbed out and encouraged me to take a seat behind the […]