Human Factors
Whether you love flying or hate it, you must admit the stories which emanate from the aviation industry often make for fascinating reading. From the ever-shrinking fortunes of domestic aircraft production to the Miracle on the Hudson, there’s always something intriguing in the news. The big story over the past week has, of course, been the drama aboard JetBlue flight 191 while enroute from New York to Las Vegas. The captain, Clayton Osbon, apparently experienced some sort of mental breakdown during the flight and had to be physically restrained by passengers after unusual behavior and disturbing comments were made to fellow members of the flight crew. It has provided welcome fodder for some publications on what was an otherwise slow news week. Esquire...
Read MoreWe Pay, They Don’t
Yesterday we alighted in San Francisco to drop off a few passengers. Despite the fact that we were only on the ground for about twenty minutes and used no services, the FBO (fixed base operator) there still charged us $1,100 for the privilege. Contrast that with the U.S. government, which took over the office of a Boulder City FBO for four days, ran wiring, installed phone lines, confiscated his entire operation for a full day in support of a visit by President Obama, and then balked at the $50/day discounted rate that the owner asked the federal government to pay. First they refused to pay anything, later relenting and adding that they’d never use his facility again. “The one client I have today wants it for free,” Fahnespock. “It’s...
Read MoreReducing the Cost of Flight Training
One of the editors of AOPA Pilot magazine got in touch with me recently to ask if I had any potential article topics for the magazine. I was flattered that someone in his position would even be interested in my thoughts on the matter. I’m nobody special, just one in a long line of aviation-centric writers on the interwebs. Anyway, I noodled on it for a while and tossed out a few pitches. Some of my suggestions were destined to fall flat — for example, the subject of computers replacing flesh-and-blood pilots in the cockpit. It goes without saying that an article on the phase-out of human pilots might be unpalatable to publications whose primary audience is those very same humans. “Hey, look how quickly you could end up on the...
Read MoreWomen in Aviation
It seem that just about everyone in our beloved industry has their own opinion about the best way to halt the painful, grinding slide of general aviation toward the abyss. I’ve noticed that these schemes seems to have on thing in common: people. We need more people. From that standpoint, I think Scott Spangler is correct when he says women are the key to aviation’s future. Without them, we lack the energy and resources of half the potential aviators in our midst. At the moment, men outnumber women in aviation by a ratio of about 20-to-1. Even a modest improvement in those numbers would represent a dramatic changes in the number of pilots, mechanics, controllers, instructors, etc around us. For example, a 10:1 disparity would represent the addition...
Read MoreAviation Myths, Part 3
[For the rest of the series, see Part 1 or Part 2] Myth #11: Aerobatics are dangerous. Aerobatic flight has played a prominent part in many fatal accident reports. Sadly, that has given acro a bad name. A more thoughtful analysis, however, clearly shows that many — perhaps most — of those crashes are due to intentional low-altitude maneuvering. When aerobatic flying is pursued in a prudent, intelligent manner with sufficient altitude, the risks are far outweighed by the benefits. Many fatalities come from the world of air shows. Air show flying can be extraordinarily dangerous because there’s virtually no structure or limit on what a pilot is permitted to do. As long as pilots don’t direct the energy of the aircraft toward spectators,...
Read MoreAviation Myths, Part 2
[For the first five myths, see Part 1] Myth #6: Only an FAA-certificated mechanic can perform maintenance on an airplane. This myth can cost you — big time. A typical GA maintenance facility can charge $100 per hour, and aircraft spend far more time in the shop than even the most maintenance-prone automobiles. Do the math and you’ll see that, especially if you don’t fly your airplane at least a couple hundred hours per year, maintenance can easily top all other ownership costs combined. Why pay that much when you can do much of the work yourself? Experts agree: Aircraft owners who studiously and routinely do some basic maintenance themselves, rather than waiting for the 100-hour or annual inspection, not only might save money...
Read MoreAviation Myths, Part 1
Over the past decade and a half I’ve been keeping a mental list of frequently encountered misconceptions about flying. For some reason, I recently Googled “aviation myths” and found quite a few articles on the topic and it inspired me to finally set my own list to virtual “paper”. This list is not exhaustive, but it does represent the myths I encounter most frequently. Some of these are misconceptions held by non-pilots, others are more common among student aviators or even experienced professionals. I’ve written about a few of these in the past, but thought it might be worthwhile to throw the whole list out there for others to chew on. I’m planning to make this a three-part series, with five myths per post. Have you...
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