Posts under ‘Uncategorized’

In an airplane, to make it go up, first you have to make it go forward. It’s kind of the same way with life. If you stand still or constantly look back, it’s impossible to make progress. You have to move forward, without fear and with enough power, until you feel the wind rush over [...]

Meet Booey, my new four legged copilot. We adopted him from the Washington Animal Rescue League last weekend, and brought him home last night. He’s a 4-month-old Beagle mutt, with white socks on his feet and a brown and black coat. Still very much a puppy, Booey is cautiously curious but adapting well to his [...]

Although I make my living studying and practicing the art of instrument flying in technically advanced aircraft, last week I immersed myself in the other end of the general aviation pool: flying low and slow over corn fields in light sport aircraft and ultralights. It was, to use a well worn but very appropriate cliche, [...]

“This is so friggin’ cool,” Tom said as he flew through low clouds, mist and rain over the Eastern Shore of Maryland with me this morning. I have to agree with him — it was very cool to see the rain on the windscreen and hear it pelt the wings, to cruise through the clouds [...]

Yesterday afternoon I sat at my desk using Microsoft Flight Simulator, attempting to generate an image of the instrument panel of a single-engine airplane in flight, after it had suffered the failure of its vacuum pump. I needed this image for a training module I’m developing. The timing of this project could not have been [...]

Haven’t you ever stopped to ask yourself, why do you do what you do? If you’re a doctor, why do you seek to cure the sick? If you’re a lawyer, why do you seek to defend the innocent and punish the guilty? If you’re a pilot, why do you fly? Why did I pack my [...]

As I flew north up the east shore of the Hudson River at around 12:30 p.m. on Friday, the Newark Tower controller advised me that I’d have to steer about a mile to the west, over Teterboro Airport, to avoid a temporary flight restriction over Yankee Stadium. Apparently the Bombers were playing an afternoon home [...]

I’m sitting in the pilot’s lounge in Hagerstown, Maryland right now, while my IFR student has a mechanic check something on his airplane. The short flight here from Fort Meade was beautiful this morning, with crystal clear visibility and smooth, cool air. After a very hot and humid start to the summer, this is quite [...]

I knew he was ready three flights ago, but the weather just hasn’t been cooperating. This morning, it finally did, and so with a light breeze blowing across Runway 34, Scott took to the sky by himself while I watched from the shade of a big corporate hangar. He soloed last summer but hasn’t flown [...]

I could have titled this post, “A new rating” or “Passing a check ride,” but that’s not really what happened yesterday. Yes, it is true that I did fly a Piper Seminole with an FAA designated examiner, and I passed the required practical test to earn a new multiengine rating on my commercial pilot’s certificate. [...]