It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, not Christmas. I’m talking about June. It’s Lesley’s birthday–time to celebrate! And we did. But it started out on somewhat of a bad note. We’d previously planned to spend the whole day at Disneyland, but I later realized that the Opera Pacific “Opera Under the Stars” concert was that evening at… Read more →
Category: Aviation
Rutan Does It Again
Well, SpaceShipOne lived up to its name and today became the first private spacecraft to leave Earth’s atmosphere and venture into the void of space. As if there was any doubt. Has Burt Rutan ever designed an aircraft that didn’t work? If so, I can’t think of it off the top of my head. From general aviation aircraft to business… Read more →
So That Happened
What a day. Dan and I made a great formation flight to Crystal Airport to look at an RV6 that’s for sale. The owner was extremely nice and we spent a couple of pleasant hours talking airplanes. Eventually we said our goodbyes and Dan launched (literally) out of there in his new RV7. This is where things get interesting. I… Read more →
Son of a Beech
After watching Apollo 13 the other day, I was doing some research on the web and discovered an ironic factoid: the defective oxygen tank that caused the explosion aboard Apollo 13 in 1970 was manufactured by none other than Beech Aircraft. For those of you scratching your heads, Beech (now a division of aerospace giant Raytheon) was renown for producing… Read more →
Apache FLIR Video
Warning: graphic stuff. This is a 4.7 megabyte mpeg video taken from an Apache AH-64D helicopter in Iraq using the ship’s FLIR (forward looking infrared) camera. The Apache crew was two kilometers away and spied the Iraqis with weaponry in a field the night. It’s unclear weather the weaponry is a gun, RPG launcher, or what. Unfortunately for those on… Read more →
The X-Prize
One of the RV6 pilots on the Socal RV list was out at Mojave today and witnessed the lastest Scaled Composites rocket powered test flight. Scaled is likely to be the first to make a run at the $10 million X-Prize. The U.S. government has already issued Scaled a spaceflight permit — the first of its kind ever issued. Seems… Read more →
Air America… Radio?
A new radio network with a liberal slant called Air America hit the airwaves today. It’s getting a lot of press — as it should. I wish them all the best. Their marquee host thus far is Al Franken. Not exactly my cup of tea politically, but Al’s certainly funny guy. He’s good enough, he’s smart enough, and I guess… Read more →
Is the PIC Responsible for EVERYTHING?
When you’re pilot-in-command of an aircraft, you like to think you’ve really considered all the what-ifs and have a plan for dealing with them. What if the engine fails. What if the flight controls jam. What if we hit a bird. What if there’s a fire on board. What if the landing gear will not extend. But in all my… Read more →
First Flight!
Well I’ll be damned! The thing actually flies. My good friend and fellow pilot Dan Checkoway’s RV-7 made a successful first flight yesterday. I’m bummed that I missed the big event. I had (wait for it) a rehearsal that kept me in Orange County. So what else is new? Hard to believe the plane is now flying. I’ve seen it… Read more →
Nellis AFB: Fightertown USA
San Diego’s MCAS Mirimar has long been known as “Fightertown USA”. But with all due respect to the Navy and Marine Corps, I’ve always considered Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas to be the true Fightertown. For one thing, Nellis home of the both the Thunderbirds and the USAF Weapons school. In addition, it hosts a seemingly unending series… Read more →