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Category Archives: Flying
Amazing Transportation
It is difficult to believe that 87 years ago today, pilots finally broke through the weather barrier and perfected instrument flying. I wrote about it before on October 31, 2010, describing the event that allows our airliners and other aircraft … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying
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Tagged airline passengers, airline pilots, airmail pilots, Amazing Transportation, blind flying, discipline, flying, flying into clouds, flying through poor weather, judgment, professional pilots, the flying public, the weather barrier
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EgyptAir Flight 804
With the loss of EgyptAir Flight 804 this past week, speculation again goes to terrorism. It is a possibility, but probably not in this case. Reports in the media indicate the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) information reported … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying
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Tagged acts of war, Airbus 340, Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), Asiana Airlines Flight 214, Automation, Boeing, Boeing 777, British Airways Flight 38, cockpit voice recorder, criminal activity, dependency on electronics, EgyptAir Flight 804, flight data recorder, fly-by-wire, Heathrow Airport, hijacking, Lufthansa Airlines, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, San Francisco International, terrorism, United Airlines
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80 Years Young
This past March 5 marked the 80th anniversary of the first flight of England’s famed Vicker’s Supermarine Spitfire. Early in the morning in 1936, the Spitfire, registration number K5054, flew for the very first time at Eastleigh Aerodrome. Only a … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History
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Tagged 80 Years Young, 80th anniversary, Battle of Britain, Captain Joseph Summers, Eastleigh Aerodrome, Ernest Mansbridge, First Flight, Flight Lieutenant Gilbert S. White, Gordon Monger, High Flight, John Gillespie Magee Jr., Judy Mansbridge, Judy Monger, K5054, Merlin supercharged V12 engine, Mutt Summers, R.J. Mitchell, Southampton Airport, Spitfire, Vicker’s Supermarine Spitfire, Woolston Southampton
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Classic
In their latest issue, Flying Magazine published an interesting article about the DC-3. It made me realize that sometimes we get so busy living life that time just passes by without our noticing. Such is the case with the DC-3. To … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History
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Tagged 1927, 1935, a classic airplane, air travel, Airbus, airplanes, Charles Lindbergh, Charles Stewart Rolls, December 17, flying the oceans, Kitty Hawk, May 27, McDonnell Douglas, memories, military service, Rolls-Royce Ltd., taildraggers, the DC-3, The Mojave, the Wrights, train travel, World War II
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Understanding the Wing
Wings are very cool things. Many pilots like wings; they fly wings and most know the working speeds of wings (if only by rote). The question is, though, exactly how does a wing work? Keep in mind that designing an … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged "know the numbers", aerodynamics, airplanes, AR=b/c, aspect ratio (AR), Cessna 172, Cessnas, chord, flight training, flying characteristics, math, mission, P-51, pilots, Pitts Special, power to weight ratio, professional pilots, Reno race pilots, S = b x c, straight and level, student pilots, trailing edge, transport airplanes, unaccelerated flight, wing area, wing span, wings, working speeds
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Solitude, at Icy Altitudes
This is a little bundled treat from music, aviation history, and my time. By my time, I mean from the time of my youth when the music was … different. The artist is Joni Mitchell, who was a fantastic composer, … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation History, Flying, Life in General
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Tagged Amelia Earhart, aviation history, barnstormers, Both Sides Now, Charles Lindbergh, clouds, Hejira, Joni Mitchell, memories, music, open cockpit biplanes
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2 Comments
Roar of a Tiger
Things you learn from researching a book. You get an idea, you act on it, and you learn so much. I decided to write about one of my favorite airplanes, the P-51 Mustang. Dropping the term “MOH P-51” into Google, … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History
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Tagged 354th Fighter Group, 356th Fighter Squadron, 8th Air Force, Air Force, airplanes, airspeed, altitude, American Volunteer Group, Andy Rooney, brigadier general, Colonel James H. Howard, England, flying, January 11 1944, judgment, Lambert Field, Medal of Honor, memories, military service, Navy, Oschlersleben Germany, P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt, P-51 Mustang, Pearl Harbor, Roar of the Tiger, the Army Air Corps, USS Enterprise, warriors, World War II
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A Dozen Rules to Spin a Prop
I looked at my Facebook page yesterday and found a photo of a pilot who lost the tip of a finger while hand propping his ultralight airplane. Pretty gruesome stuff. I often tell my students that hand propping an airplane … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged aerobatic, Aeroncas, airplanes, Cessnas, Champs, Continental A-65, Cubs, flight training, hand propping, inexperienced pilots, judgment, learning to fly, Light Sport Aircraft (LSA), Luscombes, pilots, professional pilots, Rotax, student pilots, Subaru, taildraggers, the "Armstrong" technique, training aircraft, ultralight, VW
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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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