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Category Archives: Flying
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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Unbridled Student Excitement for Flying
Nothing is better than sitting in the office and having a student drop by to talk about flying their first aerobatic flight. When they become so excited they have a hard time containing their enthusiasm, it truly is an amazing … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged a combat veteran of the Middle East, aerobatic flight, Air Force, air show airplanes, airplanes, Beechcraft Bonanza, commission in the Air Force, connecting to my own youth, discipline, enthusiasm for flying, eternally grateful, F-16 Fighting Falcon, first solo, flight training, Florida, flying, flying in the military, formation flying, friends, going vertical, inexperienced pilots, judgment, learning to fly, military service, pilots, professional pilots, pulling 6g’s, slow rolling, student pilots, Sun ’N Fun, taildraggers, tailwheel flying, talking about flying, training aircraft, Unbridled Student Excitement for Flying
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2 Comments
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 Almost Did Club
The old pilots, those much older (and presumably wiser) than me, have proclaimed, “There are those who have and those who will.” What they are referring to are pilots who have landed an airplane gear up and pilots who will … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying, Personal
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Tagged airplanes, automaticity, autopilot, breaking the rules, Cessna 210, Cessnas, charter pilots, discipline, flying, Flying Tired, GUMP check, judgment, landing an airplane gear up, landing flare, old pilots, Orlando International, pilots, professional pilots, redundant backup warning systems, Tampa International, The Almost Did Club, the famous four-letter expletive deleted, the junior officer’s hand salute, you don’t remember, “hackers”, “There are those who have and those who will”
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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
Teaching Stalls, Part II
Yesterday, we hit the basics of teaching stalls. Today, let’s go a little more in depth. First, some important questions. Why should we learn how to stall? Why should we learn how to recover from a stall? What is the … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged a bona fide short field, airplanes, airspeed, altitude, at what airspeed?, Cessnas, confident of the recovery procedures, controlling the airspeed, discipline, excess speed, flight training, fly with confidence, flying, how?, inexperienced pilots, judgment, landing rollout, learning to fly, pilots, practicing stalls and stall recoveries, professional pilots, recognize the stall, short runways, student pilots, taildraggers, Teaching Stalls Part II, the basics of teaching stalls, the inadvertent stall, the landing area, the moment the wheels touch down, the warnings of impending stall, training aircraft, when the wing is flying again, when?, why?
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2 Comments
Teaching Stalls, Part I
One maneuver scary to many student pilots is The Stall. This maneuver comes in a variety of flavors—there is the power off stall, the power on stall, the approach to landing stall, the accelerated stall. It is no surprise this … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged a bona fide short field, airplanes, airspeed, altitude, at what airspeed?, Cessnas, confident of the recovery procedures, controlling the airspeed, discipline, excess speed, flight training, fly with confidence, flying, how?, inexperienced pilots, judgment, landing rollout, learning to fly, pilots, practicing stalls and stall recoveries, professional pilots, recognize the stall, short runways, student pilots, taildraggers, Teaching Stalls Part II, the basics of teaching stalls, the inadvertent stall, the landing area, the moment the wheels touch down, the warnings of impending stall, training aircraft, when the wing is flying again, when?, why?
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2 Comments
