Next week, Fort Worth, Texas, will fill up with pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers, writers, reporters, business owners, spouses, friends, and all the assorted characters who travel along with the big aviation enthusiast road show. The draw is the AOPA Summit, an annual gathering of the faithful, the hopeful, and the not-entirely-satisfied who all have […]
Politics for Pilots
Snowballs and dominos
It has been said, what goes up must come down. The statement is so obvious that it strikes us as a truism, something so apparent that it’s legitimacy is self-evident. Then again, not everything is as it seems. As an example, you may have noted earlier this month a small spacecraft named Voyager 1 departed […]
Go west, old dude…
One of the great advantages of writing professionally is that we who scribble ideas down for others to read rarely have to face those others in person. We don’t have to worry about an errant idea sending you to the refrigerator to ferret out some overly ripe fruits or vegetables that you can hurl in […]
You don’t get what you wish for
It’s a simple truism that is all too often forgotten or ignored as we age: You don’t get what you wish for. You only get what you work for. And more often than not you’ll only see a percentage of that. Being a grown-up can be tough. Certainly any one of us might hope to […]
An auspicious visit
Daniel Webster is a member of the US House of Representatives, sent to Washington on behalf of the people of Florida’s 10th Congressional district. One of his committee assignments is Transportation and Infrastructure, which includes 21st Century Freight Transportation, Aviation, Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials. So it will come as no surprise that I was […]
Welcome back…
As is my custom, I started the day at a friendly local coffee shop. The caffeine is essential to my diet, the camaraderie of the patrons is important to my mental health, and the slow ramp-up to my full working frenzy keeps me in the game for the long haul. I like going out for […]
The distraction meter pegs
It was only recently I learned, with some considerable consternation, that CNN is reviving “Crossfire.” This is a show that ran five days a week on the Cable News Network from 1982 through 2005. In the news release announcing the rebirth of this appalling, pointless, loud, bombastic, repetitive program that is almost completely without merit, […]
You can’t do that…and other myths
I recently wrote a post where I suggested it might be possible to earn a private pilot certificate for as little as $5,000. I made that suggestion for the simple reason that it’s true. It’s an option that is available to anyone who is willing to thrown off the yoke of 20th Century flight training convention […]
The extra-Solar Impulse stunt
Let’s get the obvious out of the way right from the start. The Solar Impulse is gangly, goofy-looking, slow, fragile, and can’t possibly carry the entire family in luxurious comfort to Aunt Sally’s house for the holidays. That pretty much covers what it’s not, a topic which seems to have gotten a fair amount of […]