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Category Archives: Aviation
Dawn, October 23
It is amazing, the things you think about when you are awake at three in the middle of the night. Fifty-three years ago this morning at dawn, a section of RF-8 Crusaders streaked across the Cuban skies to record the … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History
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Tagged Commander William B. Ecker, Cuba, diplomacy, Fidel Castro, Lieutenant Bruce Wilhelmy, Light Photographic Squadron Sixty-two, MacDill AFB, military assault, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy, naval blockade, Nikita Khrushchev, nuclear fallout, October 16 1962, overthrow Castro, President John F. Kennedy, RF-8 Crusaders, single-engine single-seat jet pilots, Soviet ballistic missiles, The Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union, the United States, U-2, US Secretary of State Dean Rusk, VFP-62
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4 Comments
OK, so I lied…
For the longest time, I told my students that the highest glider flight was “29,000 and change.” That was what I had read somewhere in the past. Glider pilots made most of the flights in the mountainous regions with a … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying
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Tagged Absolute Altitude Record for gliders, altitude, California City CA, Einar Enevoldson, glider, Grob 102 Standard Astir III, meteorology, Paul Bikle, pressure suit, Robert Harris, sailplanes, Schweizer 1-23E, shoestring budget, Steve Fossett, the Perlan Project, the Sierra Nevada
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Flying for Fun
As always, I woke early. Most of my students can’t believe I wake up so early – and without an alarm. I set my phone to sound at 6:05 and it is a rare morning when I sleep past 6 … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged airplanes, airspeed, altitude, barnstormers, Cessnas, early morning flight, Flight instructors, flight training, flying, friends, inexperienced pilots, judgment, learning to fly, memories, open cockpit biplanes, pilots, professional pilots, student pilots, sunrise flying, taildraggers, training aircraft
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Playing the Game
Much of flight boils down to the decision making process. This is particularly true when it comes to weather and fuel and many times, either weather depends on the fuel situation or vice versa. An intriguing part of flight planning … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying
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Tagged airplanes, airspeed, altitude, Cessnas, discipline, inexperienced pilots, instrument flying, judgment, learning to fly, pilots, professional pilots, student pilots
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2 Comments
The First Passenger Death
“Uh-oh!” It was a simple statement uttered by a man who was about to die. Pilots tend to do that – which is a way of recognizing they will say something very prophetic just before crashing. Usually it is a … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, History
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Tagged airplanes, airspeed, altitude, crashing, engine failures, flying, Fort Myer VA, Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, military service, Orville Wright, pilots, September 17 1908, The First Passenger Death, the first passenger fatality, the Wright Brothers, the Wright Flyer, US Army, “Uh-oh!”
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1 Comment
Finally!
I have not been blogging, because of work with my publishing company. I have been editing projects, organizing workflow, marketing, and giving advice to many would be authors and finally, after seven years in the business, finally got around to … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flight Instructing, Flying, History, Life in General, Personal, Publishing, Reading, Writing
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Tagged airplanes, aviation essays, aviation history, blogging, BluewaterPress LLC, first flying lessons, flight instructing, flight training, From Cubs to Jets, General aviation, inexperienced pilots, learning to fly, making plans, memories, Military Flying, pilots, professional pilots, setting goals, student pilots, Tips and Techniques, writing
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2 Comments
Getting a License
One of the books we produced at BluewaterPress LLC came to us from Captain LeRoy Brown. LeRoy lived the life all pilots would have wished to have lived, if they could have been as lucky. LeRoy, a fine gentleman of proper age, … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged airplanes, aviation history, CAA inspector, Captain LeRoy Brown, cropdusters, discipline, Dr. Leo Murphy, Florida, Getting a License, inexperienced pilots, judgment, L-1011, learning to fly, memories, National Airlines, open cockpit biplanes, Pan American World Airways, professional pilots, Samuel Dellinger, Stormy, taildraggers
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Pilots, Briefers, and Weather, Oh My!
There is something to be said for knowing the weather in a particular geographic location. Additionally, I really miss flying in air masses over which I was capable of seeing vast expanses of air and moisture. I liked being able … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying
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Tagged "zero-zero", a promise of good VFR, airplanes, Cessnas, critical fuel, cross-country flight, discipline, flight training, Florida, flying, fog, Hazardous weather, inexperienced pilots, instrument flying, judgment, learning to fly, pilots, professional pilots, student pilots, terrain obscuration, turbulence, weather, wind shear
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AirAsia QZ8501
My heart goes out to those aboard AirAsia QZ8501 and their families. What a terrible tragedy. When the news first broke, complete with images of the weather in the area and word the pilot was trying to request deviations, I knew … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying
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Tagged AirAsia QZ8501, Airbus A320-200, black boxes, Convective storms, debris, difference between an aerodynamic stall and your car engine stalling out, flight recorders, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, MH370, search parties, studying accidents, the Java Sea
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Learning and Age
I remember back through time, to the point in my life when I had most of it before me. I was only 18 and just starting to learn how to fly. It was exciting and that first summer out of … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying, Life in General, Reading
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Tagged airliners, airplanes, discipline, flight training, helicopters, inexperienced pilots, judgment, learn how to fly, Learning and Age, learning to fly, lost art, reading, tactical jets, “book-learning”
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2 Comments
