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Category Archives: Aviation History
The Shuttles
It is difficult to hear the Space Shuttle program has reached the end of the run. After a 30-year span, NASA will retire the remaining vehicles – all of which will go to museums around the nation. Discovery, the oldest … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation History, Flying, History, Life in General
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Tagged Atlantis, Captain Kirk, Challenger, Columbia, Commander Dick Scobee, Commander Rick Husband, David Brown, Discovery, Endeavor, Enterprise, Gene Roddenberry, Gregory Jarvis, Ilan Ramon, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Los Angeles, Michael Anderson, NASA, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, the Air and Space Museum, the California Science Center, the First Teacher in Space, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Navy's aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, The Shuttles, the Space Shuttle program, the Starship USS Enterprise NC-1701, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, William McCool
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Flying the Ercoupe with Maurice
Down at the airport where I first worked as a flight instructor, my friend Maurice kept trying to get me to fly in his Ercoupe. For the pilots unfamiliar with the Ercoupe, it is a lovely little airplane powered by … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flight Instructing, Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged a slight wind right down the runway, airplanes, Cessnas, Ercoupe, flight training, flying, Flying the Ercoupe with Maurice, inexperienced pilots, judgment, landing in a crosswind, learning to fly, learning to fly in tailwheel airplanes, Maurice, memories, no rudder pedals, perfectly calm days, S-turning on final, slipping the airplane, taildraggers, take her around the patch, the limp windsock, the windsock, Time to fly the Ercoupe, training aircraft, watching a tailwheel pilot fly an Ercoupe
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Sun ’N Fun–The Day After
Okay, this is not officially the day after Sun ’N Fun, but it is for me. Often, I have said I want my 20-year-old body back; each day I live, it becomes more evident I am now well beyond 29 … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged a bunch of backyard tinkerers, airplanes, at the hangar one evening, barnstormers, camaraderie, Cessnas, Continental engines, Experimental Aircraft Association, fellowship, flight training, Florida, flying, friends, homebuilt airplanes, inexperienced pilots, learning to fly, Lycoming engines, open cockpit biplanes, people who like flying and building airplanes, pilots, professional pilots, sitting underneath the wing, student pilots, taildraggers, Tampa, training aircraft, What Sun ’N Fun Is All About, “homemade” airplanes, “store-bought” airplanes
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1 Comment
What Sun ’N Fun Is All About
Sun ’N Fun is all about camaraderie. Pure and simple, it boils down to people who like flying and building airplanes getting together in fellowship. There is not one group of people to better “hang out” with than those who … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flight Instructing, Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged a bunch of backyard tinkerers, airplanes, at the hangar one evening, barnstormers, camaraderie, Cessnas, Continental engines, controlling the finances of the project, Experimental Aircraft Association, fellowship, flight training, Florida, flying, friends, homebuilt airplanes, inexperienced pilots, learning to fly, Lycoming engines, open cockpit biplanes, people who like flying and building airplanes, pilots, professional pilots, seeing the light, sitting underneath the wing, student pilots, taildraggers, Tampa, the last of the sunset, training aircraft, What Sun ’N Fun Is All About, “homemade” airplanes, “store-bought” airplanes
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1 Comment
The Tragedy of Sun N Fun
Yesterday will long live in the memories of many of the homebuilders who flew their airplanes into Sun N Fun this week. For those who survived the devastation, they will always be grateful. For the builders who lost their planes…, … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, Life in General
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Tagged "spam-can" airplanes, a great deal of property loss, a treasure, aerial displays, airplanes, builder-owner pilot, Cessnas, Florida, flying, friends, homebuilders, homebuilt airplanes, horrific storms, inexperienced pilots, instrument flying, judgment, Lakeland Airport, learning to fly, life must go on, memories, no one died, open cockpit biplanes, pilots, professional pilots, student pilots, Sun N Fun, taildraggers, Tampa, The Navy's Flight Demonstration Team, The Tragedy of Sun N Fun, training aircraft, Vero Beach, Wichita
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1 Comment
The Last V-bomb Casualties
It is almost always bad to be last. If you are the last casualty of a war, that means you survived all of the worst of the times, saw the light with the coming end of the war, and then … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation History, History, Life in General
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Tagged anti-aircraft fire, barrage balloons, England, German V1 and V2 attacks, German V2 rocket, gyroscopic guidance system, Ivy Millichamp, Life in London during the war, London, pulsejet engines, RAF pilot, Spitfire, the last casualty of a war, the last civilian killed by a V2, The Last V-bomb Casualties, very little warning before the explosion, “Buzz Bombs”, “Doodlebugs”, “tipping”
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1 Comment
The Smell of Sunshine
To me, traveling from one point precisely to another is fascinating. Navigation is easy to understand when traveling on the surface of the earth. It is a simple matter of following directions. In other words, you can travel down Highway … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flight Instructing, Flying, History, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged a little too cocky, becoming lost, checkpoints, determine direction, draw a line on a chart, following directions, Fort Meade, going from point A to point B, holding airspeed, Lake Wales, measure distance, navigation, navigation at sea, new student pilots dependent on GPS, Piper Cub, setting a heading, technology failure, the compass rose, The Smell of Sunshine
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4 Comments
Sky King!
As a bit of humor, yesterday I posed the question of Rin-Tin-Tin and Lassie knowing one another. By the time I finished writing at the end of the piece, I realized the true answer to the question would determine the … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History, Life in General
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Tagged airplanes, an old Cessna T-50, baby-boomers, Cessna 310B, Cessnas, Florida, Florida’s Beeline Expressway, flying, Gloria Winters, his niece Penny, influencing more young girls and boys into aviation, judgment, Kennedy Space Center, Kirby Grant, Lassie, learning to fly, NASA, Navy, pilots, professional pilots, Rin-Tin-Tin, Ripcord, Schuyler “Sky” King, Sky King!, STS–16-A, The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin, the shadows of Mercury Gemini and Apollo, the Sky King Youth Ranches of America, the Songbird, the Space Shuttle Challenger, The Whirlybirds
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6 Comments
The USS Langley, CV-1
This day in 1922 was a very important day in the records of Naval Aviation. Eighty-nine years ago, the United States Navy launched their first aircraft carrier. (Found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SSd_zPTYFQ.) The USS Langley, also known as CV-1, first served as … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History, Life in General
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Tagged aircraft carrier, Commander Joseph Reeves, Commander Kenneth Whiting, Eugene Ely, flying, inexperienced pilots, judgment, LT Virgil Griffin, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, military service, naval aviation, Navy Yard Norfolk, professional pilots, Samuel P. Langley, the United States Navy, The USS Langley CV-1, USS Birmingham, USS Jupiter AC-3, Vought VE-7, “flight deck”, “seaborne aviation”
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1 Comment
Able Dogs and Spads
Today, in 1945, the XBT2D-1 flew for the first time. It was another of the great designs by Ed Heinemann, the designer of many aircraft produced by the Douglas Aircraft Company. As with many of the aircraft Heinemann created, … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, Life in General
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Tagged A-1E, A-1H, A-1J, Air Force, airplanes, Bernie Fisher, big four-bladed props, carrier-borne aircraft, discipline, Douglas Aircraft Company, Ed Heinemann, feet dry, feet wet, flying, ground troops, Helldiver, judgment, Korea, military service, Navy, Navy pilots, pilots, professional pilots, Spad pilots, taildraggers, TBM Avenger, the A-1 Skyraider, The Able Dogs and Spads, the cold war, the Congressional Medal of Honor, the deck of a carrier, the Sandy, the XBT2D-1, Vietnam, World War II, Wright R-3350, “sand blower” route
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