The City of Lights
Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said, “A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” Were it not for the fact that he died 2,500 years ago, one might imagine this was a tip of the proverbial hat to those of us who fly ultra-long range jets. To the general public, this kind of life is glamorous and carefree, but insiders know quite well that long-distance international trips frequently take on a yin-and-yang quality. Between blasting through a dozen time zones in a single flight and the long dark hours spent on oceanic red-eyes, they can be impressively exhausting. Maybe that’s why pilots I’ve talked to who are scheduled to transition into the Gulfstream G650 aren’t always as enthusiastic about the upgrade as one might...
Read MoreCircle-to-Land Complications
If I asked you to ponder the most pucker-inducing aspect of instrument flying, what would come to mind? An icing encounter? Circumventing imbedded thunderstorms? Hand flying that approach to minimums? An instrument failure? Those are all good answers, but for me the one that takes the cake is a low-visibility circle-to-land maneuver to an unfamiliar airport at night. If you’re not an instrument-rated pilot, you might not be familiar with this. The need for circling comes from situations where the weather is poor and the runway most associated with the approach is not suitable for landing. This could be due to unfavorable winds, runway construction, insufficient runway length, or any one of a dozen different reasons. Some approaches are simply not aligned...
Read MoreLooking Back: How I Got Started in Aviation
The way flying consumes my life these days, you’d think I was born with a pair of goggles, leather jacket, and a long silk scarf. Alas, nothing could be further from the truth. I grew up in Studio City, ironically not far from the Van Nuys Airport that I fly out of on a regular basis these days. But aside from a few childhood toys, aviation wasn’t on my radar much as a youngin’. The one exception would be a memorable flight from Los Angeles to Missouri in 1977. My mother took me to visit the grandparents, and the trip to St. Louis was made via a shiny red and white TWA Boeing 727. It was the old days of air travel, before so-called “de-regulation”. I don’t know what the ticket cost. What I do know is that everyone dressed up,...
Read MoreBlogging in Formation
Aviators are a social lot. Spend any time around a small general aviation airport and you’ll learn that even the crabbiest old hangar rats among us is happier when there’s someone around to toss an insult to. Yes, we love doing things together, whether it’s fixing or building an aircraft, eating, sitting around the hangar telling lies, or even flying. The ultimate airborne manifestation of this phenomenon is formation flying. Not just being in an aircraft with fellow pilots, but each person bringing their own airplane along for the ride as well. It can appear deceptively easy. After all, we drive our cars on the highway in “formation” for hours on end and think nothing of it, barely paying attention as we hurl along the interstate at...
Read MoreFighting Back at SMO
The Santa Monica city council voted unanimously yesterday to increase the landing fees at the airport by about 250%. Even some based at the airport feel the battle is trending badly for SMO’s continued viability. I agree with them. The biggest bite doesn’t come from the fee itself as much as the fact that aircraft based at Santa Monica are no longer exempt. So a student learning to fly at the airport will now have to pay thousands of extra dollars to achieve PTS-level proficiency as they get dinged for every single landing. A typical GA pilot or owner at SMO who flies, say, twice a month will face a similar financial burden. And that’s to say nothing of the precedent this sets for other airport operators. You can bet every one of them is...
Read MoreThe Good Life
There are days when I really feel for those who’ve never had a taste of the Good Life. That is, the world of general aviation. The things they’re missing out on! You might not know it from the way most airfields are ensconced by ominous chain link, barbed wire, and signage screaming of long prison sentences for trespassing, but some of the sweetest experiences are on the other side of that boundary. And I’m not even talking about the actual flying. No, this is about the people. Folks who, if they work at the airport, probably go there on their day off as well just because they love it so much. Even when they don’t, their thoughts wander back to that place. There are individuals who will work two and three jobs, laboring, scrimping, saving...
Read MoreJudgement: Knowing When to Say When
Will Rogers once said, “Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.” Of course, he died in a plane crash, so you’ll have to excuse him for begging the question. Speaking of good judgement, Chris, a New York-based private pilot, recently related a story about an instructor who steered him wrong on a WINGS proficiency flight. Changing frequencies quickly revealed that light aircraft were swarming around Oswego like flies. All of them were using runway 33 and landing with a direct crosswind. I weighed the options quietly. I could certainly handle a ten knot crosswind and thought that it would be good practice. I decided to enter the pattern for runway 33 along with everyone else so as to not disrupt traffic. I...
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