Random Musings

March 23, 2015

What Drew Me to Flying

42 years ago I was sitting on my bedroom floor playing the game Careers with my girlfriends. This was a game where we spun the wheel to land on the career of our choice. Yes… we could become a stewardess, librarian, teacher, nurse, or model! A stewardess was the career of the times.    …

March 2, 2015

Challenge Yourself

All of us have reasons that we love airplanes and flying.  Maybe it was a parent or other relative that passed their love of aviation on to you.  Or maybe you just lived near an airport and were fascinated by the amazing machines that defied gravity to venture to all corners of the earth.  …

February 2, 2015

Restoring The Passion For Flying

Along with many of my fellow avgeeks, I have spent a lot of time recently writing about trying to get new people excited about aviation.  It is incredibly important that we spark that new interest where possible, but there is another group that is also in need of a spark these days. Many professional aviators…

January 12, 2015

My favorite (non turbine) airplanes

My favorite airplanes (non turbine) Lets do a little dreaming. Image you have a bottomless bank account. What would we find in your hangar? This would be a real challenge for me since I love all airplanes, but somehow I’d make due. He’s my choices as of today, ask me tomorrow and it’ll change. It…

January 5, 2015

Read The NOTAMs!

You know what they say – READ THE NOTAMS! We always get this great advice and it really would be the wisest thing to do, but sometimes your head isn’t in the game.  Let me give you an example: I spend most my time at 500 feet AGL in a taildragger, talking to absolutely no…

December 22, 2014

Where is Mark today? – Chicago

Drumroll please… Chicago! Wait I meant sigh, Chicago… The last couple of days have been a whirlwind. Yesterday we departed HWD for DLS,  an airport that proved to be one of the most challenging approaches I have done in a jet in recent memory. The weather was marginal, but the gusty wind conditions only allowed…

December 8, 2014

Chemical Trails for Mind Control???

Let me first start off by saying that I am not easily trolled, but here are a few things that drive me nuts. When pilots on the radio say “fish finder”, I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut. A close second on “Marks top ten list of things he hates”  is the whole…

December 1, 2014

Lessons Learned: When to Ground Yourself

Hi Everyone! As previously mentioned, iFLYblog.com is EXPANDING with NEW CONTRIBUTORS! Joining us today is David Lynn, a C-130H Navigator and blogger. You can read his about page by clicking his name in the ABOUT menu on the iFLYblog.com homepage! Now without further lies and stories, please enjoy this post from contributor David Lynn  …

November 9, 2014

General Aviation Versus Airline Flying

As mentioned before, iFLYblog.com is EXPANDING with NEW CONTRIBUTORS! Joining us today is Karlene Petitt, Airbus 330 Pilot and author! You can read her about page by clicking her name in the ABOUT menu on the iFLYblog.com homepage! A while back Karlene posted this neat question answer session she had with a young CFI who…