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Category Archives: Aviation
Automation
One thing which tends to strike fear into the heart of a young student pilot working on a career in aviation is the word, automation. Young people hate to hear that word because they think it might keep them from getting … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying
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Tagged airline crews, airline pilots, airplanes, Airplanista online magazine, Automation, Charles Lindbergh, FedEx, first officer, flight engineer, flying across the Atlantic, Fred Smith, fully automated cockpits, life support systems, navigator, passenger flights, pilot, pilots, professional pilots, radio operator, student pilots, unmanned aerial vehicles, Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), young student pilots
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The Super Viking
One of my students made a derogatory comment about “plastic” airplanes when I mentioned airplanes of composite construction one day in class. He said something to the effect that real airplanes are supposed to be made of metal. I thought … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying
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Tagged Bellanca 17-30A Super Viking, Bellanca Aircraft Company, Bellanca Viking, Continental IO-520, Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, Italian immigrant, Minnesota, The Super Viking, tube wood and fabric airplane, wood wing, ‘canvas’ airplanes, “plastic” airplanes
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1 Comment
The Culver Cadet
Every pilot should try to fly as many different types of airplanes as possible. One of the most unique airplanes I ever had the chance to fly was the Culver Cadet. Hubert, a friend of mine at the airport, owned … Continue reading →
The Sunshine Skyway
Yesterday my wife, her parents, and I visited her sister in Bradenton. It was a nice afternoon – except for the Gator’s game – that was a pretty hard loss to the Seminoles. Afterward, we started home to my in-law’s … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged B-26 Marauder, Capricorn, Captain Al Ford, commercial airline flight, Cuba, Fort Brooke, in Tampa Bay”, instrument pilot, Jimmy Doolittle, MacDill Field, Seminoles, snook, St. Petersburg, Tampa, Tampa Bay, Tampa International Airport, Teddy Roosevelt, the birth of scheduled airline flying, the Gator’s game, the Rough Riders, the Spanish American War, the Summit Venture, The Sunshine Skyway, Tony Jannus, USCGC Blackthorne, WDAE 1250 a.m. radio, World War II, “One a day
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Making the Ship Go Faster
As with any organization, pilots can have a rather active, funny, ingenious, and sometimes sophisticated sense of humor. Most times, however, we can just be juvenile, according to our wives. A tale told during my Navy days probably has an … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying
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Tagged 1-wire, airplanes, breach of discipline, catshot, discipline, glideslope, immediate action procedures, LSOs (Landing Signal Officers), military service, Navy, Pilot Humor on a Dark and Stormy Night, pilots, radar intercept officer (RIO), rounddown, sense of humor, shipboard humor, single-engine operations, sophisticated sense of humor, spud locker, The Air Boss, the marshal stack, the proverbial dark and stormy night, the quickness of a naval aviator's mind, Tomcat, Zone 5 afterburner
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1 Comment
The T-cart
Yesterday’s blog was about The Perfect Flying Machine. Today, it is about a very similar flying machine. The reason it is very similar is because the same aeronautical engineer, Clarence Gilbert Taylor, designed today’s airplane, the Taylorcraft. After the big … Continue reading →
The Perfect Flying Machine
Every time an airplane makes the news, someone makes a comment about the “Piper Cub.” Now the airplane might have been a Cessna 210, a Beechcraft A-36, maybe even a King Air, but for many in the public, if the … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying
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Tagged airplanes, Beechcraft A-36, Boeing 700 series airliner, Bradford PA, Cessna 210, Clarence Gilbert Taylor, Continental A-40 engine, Continental A-65 engine, flying, J-2 Cub, King Air, learning to fly, Piper J-3 Cub, student pilots, taildraggers, Taylor Brothers Aircraft Corporation, Taylor E-2 Cub, The Perfect Flying Machine, the “Piper Cub”, training aircraft, William T. Piper
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1 Comment
Captain Jeffrey Haney, USAF
Down here in the lower 48, all we knew was that an F-22 Raptor went down. For a long time, we knew little other than it was missing. For far too long this past week, all we knew was the … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying, Life in General
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Tagged Alaska, Captain Jeffrey Haney USAF, dedication to duty, F-22 Raptor, flight students, leading by example, missing aircraft, standing vigil
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1 Comment
What Makes a Really Good Pilot?
So, you want to be a good pilot. No, you want to be a great pilot. You want people to regard you as one of the best pilots with whom they have ever flown. Not too lofty a goal, is … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged actual emergencies, airspeed control, checking weather, emergency procedures, engine failures, flying smoothly, fuel mismanagement, glide path control, great pilot, judgment, piloting skill, practice, risks, running out of gas, What Makes a Really Good Pilot?, young and inexperienced
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Negative Transfer
You can find one of the greatest examples of a negative transfer of learning in the cockpit of many of today’s training aircraft. For whatever reason, the industry decided a long time ago steering yokes were more desirable rather than … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged avoiding hazards, control sticks, crosswind landings, crosswinds, inexperienced pilot, learning, Negative Transfer, negative transfer of learning, proper training, steering yokes, taxiing an aircraft, training aircraft, wind correction angle, “steering wheel”
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2 Comments
