Not long ago, I did something stupid in an airplane. Gulp. The scenario looked like this: I departed a non-towered airport that lies under Class B airspace. As my flight home was a short one, I didn’t use Flight Following, as I normally would. Instead I simply took off, climbed to 2,000 feet, and settled in […]
Politics for Pilots
The other call of the wild
When I’m in my own home town, which is a good portion of the time, I walk a lot. It’s an old habit, one I adopted as a public school student. My assigned school bus stop was two miles from my parent’s house. The bus stop was on a hard road, but our home sat […]
The caretaker’s task
Of all the mass produced airplanes ever to come off an assembly line, anywhere in the world, there may be no more iconic a flying machine than the humble Piper J3 Cub. First built in 1937, production of the Cub lasted a mere 10 years. By the time the Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, production line closed down […]
Not quite deja vu
Although I am a huge and unrepentant advocate for general aviation, my first exposure to flight involved a big aluminum tube powered by four round engines. Eastern Airlines was the carrier. Bradley Field in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, was the departure point. Gainesville, Florida, was the destination, with a change of airplanes in Atlanta. I was […]
From here to there and back again
My friend Eirlys is a youthful ball of fire. She’s just 18 years old. As of last week she’s now an official high school graduate, with a diploma to prove it. If all goes well, and weather permitting, she’ll be a brand new private pilot by the end of next week. She’s really something. I ran […]
If at first you don’t succeed…
In 1992 I stumbled across the first airplane I ever seriously considered buying. I was a hard-working CFI back then. My income wasn’t going to set the world on fire, but maybe, just maybe I could find a way to buy the classic T-craft with the faded “For Sale” sign behind its windshield. Even though […]
Donald Shimoda is my co-pilot
In the mid-1980s I was a professional musician. I lived in in the Greenwich Village section of New York City with my best friend and musical collaborator, Michael Mazzarella. Our apartment sat on Bleecker Street, just around the corner from MacDougal. We walked on sidewalks Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and Paul Simon had walked. We […]
Pilot, humble thyself
As you might imagine of a guy who writes for an aviation publication with the reputation enjoyed by General Aviation News, I’ve been flying for quite a while. You might also get the impression I pretty much know what I’m doing. That’s not necessarily true. Sure, I can get an airplane into the air and […]
Aviation, with an absence of pressure
There is a very human trait that compels us to share the things we love with others that populate our lives. This is especially true of family members, and of particular concern with children. How often have you heard someone sigh, and with a shrug of resignation say something to the effect of, “My father […]