As a pilot I have an irresistible tendency to look up when I see an airplane over head. For some reason I don’t think this instinct exists in the non-aviation oriented population. This has been demonstrated to me dozens of times when I’m in public. I reflexively strain my neck to place my gaze upon…
If you are lucky enough to have a spouse that is in love with aviation then you can skip this post entirely. Unfortunately, not all of us enjoy such pleasantries of life. Some of us may find ourselves wedded to someone who would rather stick pins in their eyes than go to the airport and…
Ok we say we want to grow the industry, but do we really? I feel like there are plenty among us who could care less. Maybe if you stopped and asked them directly they wouldn’t be so callous, but their actions elucidate their mentality. If you are the ones among us that are active in…
This is my humble contribution to the blogging in formation series. If you had one wish for aviation what would it be? Make it: safer, more mainstream, less expensive, more accessible, increasingly social, more desirable, etc.? In a nutshell, my one wish would be to make it less expensive, of course many of your would…
Like many, I have been waiting patiently the last several months for the opening of Disney’s latest offering. This movie is a spin-off of the wildly successful animated movie Cars, but since the theme was airplanes, what self-respecting pilot could resist? The wife wasn’t over enthused about going, but my youngest daughter, who’s 8, couldn’t wait. …
On the heels of the FAA’s certification of the first commercial drones, I’m compelled to take you down the rabbit hole with me regarding the implications of our skies littered with faceless, nameless machines. Like almost all powerful technology that has been developed in history, it can be used for good, and it can be…
Disclaimer: the inspiration for this post comes from my minor obsession with coffee. It real doesn’t matter where you are in the spectrum of aviation, sometimes we just need a little jolt to remind us why we have embarked on this journey. Indulge me as I draw parallels between my other vice, Starbucks, and different ways to enliven…
Pilots don’t agree on much, but if you were to ask what are the scariest things that could potentially occur in an airplane you will almost universally get this answer: Fire, Structural Failure, and Midair (in no particular order). Not that we sit around trembling in fear of such things, but when the thought wafts…
In this environment of security theatre, many folks are very attune to all of the surveillance we are under, but you might need to consider the equipment you have on the airplane you fly that is also watching you. All of the popular glass cockpit EFIS systems that I’m familiar with keep data on all…
When the group was deciding on a theme for this month’s Blogging in Formation series (#blogformation), we agreed to anchor it around July 4th (U.S. Independence Day). We settled on The Future of Aviation in the U.S., but we encouraged each other to explore the edges, good or bad, as we saw fit. We Are The…