Hardly a day goes by without a pleading email from Angel Flight West headquarters seeking an available pilot and aircraft to get someone to medical treatment. The email I received today was heartbreaking, even by AF standards. Cheri — the mission coordinator — was trying to get a Navy medical technician from San Diego to Texas for the funeral of… Read more →
Category: Aviation
Convertible Baron
My home base airport sits in the Santa Ana canyon area of Southern California. It’s so heavily traveled by general aviation aircraft that a certain paranoia about a midair collision sets in. Everyone–and I mean everyone–keeps their eyes peeled while flying near Corona. When flying over less populated areas, however, a certain complacency can set in. After all, midair collisions… Read more →
Fun With NTSB Reports
Anyone want to take a guess what the pilots of this aircraft were doing when the plane crashed? It may seem cruel to make light of an accident that took two lives, but I can’t help but chuckle when this appears in an official NTSB accident report: EXAMINATION OF THE INDIVIDUALS’ CLOTHING REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF RIPPING OR DISTRESS TO… Read more →
Skylane for Sale
1975 Cessna 182P N6594M “Tweety Bird” $92,000 N6594M has been SOLD! Additional photos available here. 3000 hours total time 1150 hours SFRM on the factory reman engine (1993) 50 hours since prop overhaul (2003) 100 hours since mags were overhauled (2003) Equipment: heated pitot static wicks alternate static air Cessna umbrella fuel caps Rosen sun visors nav light… Read more →
Saying Goodbye To An Old Friend
After much consideration, I have decided to put my aircraft up for sale. Not because I have to get rid of it (though aircraft are certainly not cheap to own!), but because I have put more than eight hundred hours on her and I’m ready for a new adventure. I’d like to pursue CFI, -II, and MEI certificates. Learn to… Read more →
Look Ma, No Flight Controls
Who says flying cargo is boring? Certainly not the DHL Global flight crew that landed their crippled Airbus A300 at Baghdad International Airport last November. Their jet was hit by a surface-to-air missile at 8,000 feet while on descent for landing in Baghdad. The missile tore off a large chunk of the left wing, which sounds bad but is not… Read more →
Thunderbird Crash
Talk about your close calls! Fascinating on-board and external video of the crash of Thunderbird #6 during an airshow in Idaho. Read more →
Eurotrash
This fascinating photo was sent by a fellow T210 pilot: The pilot of this (now totaled) helicopter was trying to taxi past a maintenance hangar when his rotors cut into the hangar doors. This shredded the doors, rolled the aircraft over, and blew shrapnel through the hangar into several aircraft parked inside, including a jet. It wasn’t a small whirlybird,… Read more →
Where Are the Armed Pilots?
Here’s a recent Washington Times editorial by Boeing 737 captain Tracy W. Price detailing yet another TSA fiasco, this time on guns in the cockpit. I can find no reason for the TSA’s behavior except to say that they do not even remotely understand who they’re dealing with–on either side of the cockpit door. As far as I’m concerned, every… Read more →
I Hate Signature
I don’t use the word “hate” lightly. But I hate Signature Flight Support. I really do. And I’m not the only one. Look at these comments. We’re headed to Las Vegas tomorrow. The plane is in great shape, the weather is good, and I want to fly. But we’re going to drive. I simply cannot bring myself to give this… Read more →