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Category Archives: Aviation
Flying From Here to There
One challenge I enjoyed most learning to fly was flying from one place to another. In the aviation business, they call this flying cross-country. It truly is a great challenge and immensely fun. It is also a fascinating science. The … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged charts, checkpoints, flying cross-country, Flying From Here to There, following directions, going from point A to point B, GPS, instruments, most fascinating navigators, navigation at sea, navigational instruments, printed timetables, rudimentary sextants, the ancient Polynesians, the Hawaiian Islands, the Pacific Ocean, when technology fails
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5 Comments
Downed Raptors
The Air Force Times reported on an interesting development this week on July 27. According to the AF Times, the entire fleet of F-22 Raptors in the Air Force inventory has not flown since May 3, 2011—the result of problems … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying
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Tagged a complex machine, aircraft life support systems, Anchorage AK, Captain Jeff Haney, cognition, Downed Raptors, F-22 Raptors, hitting trees on landing, hypoxia, liquid oxygen (LOX), military O2 systems, OBOGS, On-Board Oxygen Generation System, pilots, system concerns, the 525th Fighter Squadron, The Air Force Times
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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Another of the great writer-flyers from World War II was a Frenchman by the name of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Unlike the youthful Bert Stiles profiled yesterday, Saint-Exupéry was relatively older—especially for serving as a combat pilot. Saint-Exupéry is the author … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, History, Life in General, Reading, Writing
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Tagged a silver identity bracelet, airline companies, an airmail pilot, André Prévot, Antoine Saint-Exupéry, author, combat operations, dehydration, F-5B reconnaissance aircraft, finding his place as a wordsmith, Flight to Arras, gathering intelligence, hallucinations, L'Aviateur or The Aviator, Marseille, navigator, Night flight, pioneering flights, Riou Island, the fastest flying time from Paris to Saigon, the Free French Forces, The Little Prince, Wind Sand and Stars, World War II
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Bert Stiles
Yesterday I wrote about the bomber bases in England, left crumbling today 66 years after the end of World War II. Mentioned in the blog, was the loss of talent resulting from the deaths of many. Specifically, I said I … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History, Writing
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Tagged 505th Fighter Squadron, a feature writer, a writer ahead of his time, B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers, Bassingbourn England, Bert Stiles, captured, dogfight, Estes Park, exceptional writing, flying the B-17 into combat, Hanover Germany, Hitler’s war effort, killed in action, missing, P-28s, P-47s, P-51D, P-51s, Serenade to the Big Bird, Tar Heel, the 91st Bomb Group, The Eighth Air Force, the Royal Air Force, The Saturday Evening Post, US Army Air Corps, V-1 buzz bombs, V-2 rockets, W.W. Norton & Co., World War II, World War II bases, wounded
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I Woke in England
I woke this morning at 0530 and could not sleep any longer. I did not wish to disturb my wife, so I got up and started working. When I looked at the computer, I had forgotten to close Google Earth. … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, History
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Tagged B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers, Bert Stiles, captured, Google Earth, Hitler’s war effort, I Woke in England, killed in action, missing, P-28s, P-47s, P-51s, The Eighth Air Force, the Royal Air Force, US Army Air Corps, V-1 buzz bombs, V-2 rockets, World War II bases, wounded
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102 Years Ago Today
A little after four o’clock in the morning this day 102 years ago, 30 year-old Louis Charles Joseph Blériot, an engineer and early French aviator, was nursing a badly burned foot. He and two other early pilots, Hubert Latham and … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History
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Tagged 102 Years Ago Today, a 25-horsepower Anzani engine, a very rough landing, Blériot #VIII, Blériot #XI, Blériot-Aéronautique Aéronautique, Calais France, Charles de Lambert, crossing of the English Channel, Dover England, Hubert Latham, Louis Charles Joseph Blériot, Société Pour Aviation et ses Derives (SPAD), Société pour les Appareils Deperdussin, the airplane would never fly again, the Daily Mail, the Musee des Arts et Metiers
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1 Comment
It’s Another Year
Well, until today, I was older than my best friend, Paul. Today, he is as old as I am. Unfortunately, we both went over the hill a long time ago. In other words, we are a couple of old fa… … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged a damn Yankee, a lifetime of gratitude, Alberto Santos-Dumont, barnstormers, biplanes, gypsy pilots, in the fifth grade, It’s Another Year, It’s [a] old Southern joke!, my best friend Paul, my only interest was jets, over the hill, the Demoiselle, the First World War, the summer of 1986, the Sunshine State, the War Between the States, ultralight airplanes
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1 Comment
Knowing Where to Land
One thing about landing an airplane is knowing where to land. Of course, all pilots will land on an airport, but the question becomes one of where on the airport. Or maybe where on the runway. It makes little sense … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged a pilot must know the performance of his or her aircraft, aircraft operations, capable of executing the landing within those parameters, centerline stripes, Cessnas, engine overheating, experienced pilots, fouled spark plugs, hard surface runway, knowing airport runway and marking, Knowing Where to Land, land near the FBO, naturally decelerate without using the brakes, Pipers, saves wear and tear on the brakes, saving taxi time, single-engine airplanes, the pilot-in-command, where to land on the airport, where to land on the runway
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2 Comments
The Thing About Flying
My friend, Holly, sent in this account of one of his latest adventures. He wrote it so well and supplied great photos, I had to have him debut as my first guest colmnist. ——————— The thing about flying, the adventures … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying
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Tagged airplanes, airspeed, altitude, Atlanta, Epps Aviation, Florida, flying, friends, instrument flying, judgment, Larry King, memories, PDK, pilots, Pipers, training aircraft, Yaks
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41st Anniversary of Airport Screening
Forty one years ago today, the US instituted airport screening at New Orleans’ Moisant Field, now known as Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Prior to 1968, the hijacking Of US airliners was very rare. In the two years leading … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, History, Life in General
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Tagged 41st Anniversary of Airport Screening, Airport Security, Athens, Beirut, Cuba, Florida, flying, Havana, Hezbollah, hijacking, Islamic Jihad, judgment, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, New Orleans Moisant Field, non-confrontational compliance, professional pilots, Rome, September 11 2001, the Middle East, TWA flight 847, United 93, US Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem
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2 Comments
