The EAA has collected video recordings of about 100 aviation pioneers at TimelessVoices.org. Two of my favorites are Daniel Rundstrom who talks about flying a DC-3 in Yemen and how he dealt with a load of passengers who decided to start an open fire to boil water for tea while in flight, and John Miller […]
AirVenture 2006 by the Numbers
The EAA says that AirVenture 2006 was about 10% smaller than AirVenture 2005 but it was plenty big enough for me. I walked my legs off and came home with a smile permanently embedded in my face. Along with my plane, about 10,000 aircraft flew into Oshkosh Wittman Regional Airport and the other airports in […]
Oshkosh AirVenture 2006
Jack Hodgson and his friend Phil wrote, Oshkosh is like sex. I can never get all I want but sometimes I get all I can take… and you should shower afterwards. Oh, how true! I have wanted to attend the Oshkosh AirVenture air show all of my life and I finally made it last week. […]
Joie du Vol
The Today Show did a great segment on the joy of flying a small plane. Watch it here.
Flying + Camping = Fun
I have loved flying ever since I was a boy. When I got my first paper route in sixth grade, one of the first things I bought with my own money was a subscription to Flying magazine. We bought a Coleman pop-up trailer in the summer of 2001. It has taken me five years of […]
Study – Learn – Live
I was reading “Married to the Craft” in the June 2006 issue of Popular Photography. Hanson Fong, the subject of the article, was quoted as saying, Over the years, a few really talented artists have been gifted with the rare ability to light and pose faces and bodies to make them most attractive. I knew […]
Mothers Day Magic Carpet
Our plane proved itself a magic carpet today, taking us from St. Charles, MO to Kalamazoo, MI to visit Candy’s mother (and family); then on to Valparaiso, IN to visit my mother (and family); and then back home. We could not possibly have spent time on Mother’s Day with everybody using any other vehicle. Total […]
Spitfire Fun
Have you ever wondered how to have fun with a documentary commentator, a video camera, and a vintage Spitfire fighter plane? Watch this video to see the best way to do it. I can imagine the scene from the commentator’s perspective. He does his spiel and hears the plane approaching from behind him. He waits […]
To Fly or Not to Fly: Aviation Weather Forecasts for Non-Pilots
When I am planning a cross country flight, friends and relatives often express concern about the weather and offer to share weather forecasts with me. Frequently, they are worried because the TV weather person said something like, “snow tonight, continuing into tomorrow.” I very much appreciate the feelings and motivations behind their concern. Weather is […]
Beautiful Clouds
I pulled the camera out on yesterday’s flight home from Syracuse, NY and got quite a few pictures that please me very much. Here is my favorite:
Online Aeronautical Charts
Thanks to AVweb for pointing out Skyvector.com, an incredibly useful site which has on-line versions of all the sectionals within the lower 48. Skyvector.com gets three thumbs-up from me! AVweb also found RunwayFinder which mashes the sectionals with Google Maps. It is an interesting implementation but I find the Google Maps icons distracting since they […]
Why I Own My Own Aircraft
Do you wonder why I bought an airplane? There are lots of reasons but Why I Own My Own Aircraft at the Beech Aero Club’s web site offers a particularly poignant reason: he keys the mike and says “REBEL BASE, THIS IS RED 5. WE ARE STARTING OUR ATTACK RUN ON THE DEATH STARâ€. Good […]
Traveling by Arrow
A Week in Syracuse, via Trenton and Kalamazoo Candy and I took our first long cross country in the Arrow last week. Click the thumbnail to the right to see a larger map of where we flew. The trip went great, although the flying weather was pretty cloudy most of the time. I logged 3.1 […]
General Aviation Economics 101
If I offered to sell spare time to you for $10 per hour, would you buy? I have a confession to make. Like most people, I used to view flying small planes as an expensive hobby and general aviation as an overpriced form of transportation. As a pilot, that’s quite a mouthful. Two things have […]
St. Charles to Madison — Conveniently
Yesterday, Candy, David and I flew to Madison, Wisconsin for a cousin’s bat mitzvah. Marian did great and was properly celebrated on this step into adulthood. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting her and reconnecting with cousins whom I have not seen in ages. This was one of those trips seemingly designed for a small plane. Had […]
Flying High
We got it! Yesterday, Candy and I picked up our new baby, 1968 Piper Arrow N7430J and flew it home to St. Charles County Smartt airport. To say that I am thrilled would be an understatement. The radios, including the GPS, worked flawlessly. The flight from Kentucky back to Missouri was a joy on a […]
Two More Flights
Last Saturday was simply beautiful with blue sky, calm winds, and moderate temperatures. I reserved N6343D and took Kevin and David up again, this time to dawdle about in the sky over our house, their school, the local baseball stadium and whatever else caught our fancy. Along the way I flew over to Spirit of […]
“First” Flight with My Sons
I rented 6343D again yesterday and took my sons up for the “first” time. I say “first” because neither one of them remembers being up with me before, not surprising since Kevin was three and David one at the time. David was pretty cute on that last flight. I strapped his car seat into the […]
Flying Again III
I soloed again this evening! I just had to celebrate getting my medical this afternoon by heading to the airport after work. It wasn’t quite as good as my first solo but it was still way beyond wonderful. 🙂 I only took N6343D (a C-172) for 0.7 hours, did a couple of touch ‘n’ goes […]
Flying Again II
Last week, I went flying for the first time in 13 years. Today I went back up for an hour of touch ‘n’ goes with a nice crosswind. The first few were a little “off” but, by the end, I was feeling much better about my performance. The plane was on the centerline, pointed down […]
