Category Archives: Personal

Impressions

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Joe Clark

I remember the first time I saw the Blue Angels. I was working the line fueling airplanes at the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport, so I was standing atop my fuel truck. I watched the team arrive and fly their practice … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Flying, Life in General, Personal | Tagged airmanship, aviators, Blue Angles, excitement and enthusiasm, F6F Hellcats, Impressions, June 1946, LCDR Roy “Butch” Voris, Lead, NAS Jacksonville, naval aviation, seat in the fleet, wingmen, “the best of the best” | 2 Comments

Navigation

Posted on October 24, 2010 by Joe Clark

Getting around the world is a fascinating exercise. At first, a person’s total awareness of his or her environment is the extent of as far as they can see, usually not much further beyond their crib or bedroom at first. … Continue reading →

Posted in Flying, Life in General, Personal | Tagged A-4, backyards, Caribbean Sea, Cuba, degrees, globe, GPS, Guantanamo Bay Cuba, Haiti, Hawaii, Jamaica, nation, nautical miles, navigation, neighborhood, Pacific Ocean, seeing beyond the horizon, sextants, state, statute miles, TACAN, the ancient Polynesians, the South Pacific | 1 Comment

My Maternal Grandfathers

Posted on October 23, 2010 by Joe Clark

Yesterday, I wrote about my paternal grandfathers. Today, I must tell the stories of my mother’s fathers and their fathers. Their stories are just as interesting and possibly more critical to my being here than those of my Cuban ancestors. … Continue reading →

Posted in Life in General, Personal | Tagged Camp Rathbun, Co. G 15 Alabama Infantry, County Road 18, Dothan Al, Elmira NY, England, Florida, Highway 231, Mississippi, My Maternal Grandfathers, my paternal grandfathers, Northern Aggression, prisoner of war, South Alabama, South Carolina, Southerners, The South, The War, The Wilderness, the Wiregrass | 1 Comment

My Grandfathers

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Joe Clark

Every now and then, you have to stop and think about how you got here. In my case, I came from England, on both sides of my family, but not directly. My father’s family came to America from England by … Continue reading →

Posted in Life in General, Personal | Tagged America, Bahamas, England, half-Cuban, Letter of Marque, My Grandfathers, Nottingham, pirates, pretty Cuban girls, San Francisco de Paula Regla Havana Cuba, Spanish galleons, Straits of Florida, the Caribbean, the King of England, think about how you got here | 5 Comments

Telephones

Posted on October 20, 2010 by Joe Clark

When we baby-boomers were still in grade school and watching cartoons on Saturday mornings, the Sunday morning papers carried an interesting comic strip, Dick Tracy. One of the most interesting “gadgets” the fictional cop used in fighting crime was his … Continue reading →

Posted in Life in General, Personal | Tagged Agent 86 Maxwell Smart, Alexander Graham Bell, baby-boomers, communications industry, Dick Tracy, digital cell phones, Dr. Martin Cooper, grandparents, miniature hand held computers, Motorola Corporation, NASA, parents, smart phones, space program, Star Trek, Sunday morning papers, telecommunicator, Telephones | 3 Comments

Any Attitude, Any Airspeed

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Joe Clark

I am sure you have heard old flight instructors or pilots say, “An airplane can stall in any attitude or any airspeed.” Come on, admit it. You really didn’t believe them did you? I mean, how is it possible an … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Personal | Tagged 2 v 3 dogfight, A-4, Any Airspeed, Any Attitude, Challenger, critical angle-of-attack, DACM, dissimilar air combat maneuvering, F-14, Guantanamo, gunsight, old flight instructors, pilots, pointed straight down, rolling scissors, Skyhawk, slow flight, stall, throttle wide open, Tomcats | 1 Comment

Clark’s Kitty Camp

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Joe Clark

Over the last few days, we had the privilege of looking after “Hope” and “Chance.” Hope and Chance are a couple of cats who were literally running out of all hope and had very little chance of living much past … Continue reading →

Posted in Life in General, Personal | Tagged airport security screeners, calico kittens, Clark’s Kitty Camp, felines, young cats, “Arrgh!”, “Felix”, “Got a cat?”, “Hope” and “Chance”, “the boys” | 3 Comments

A Very Pleasant Surprise

Posted on October 12, 2010 by Joe Clark

One wonderful thing about airplanes is that each has a lesson to teach. All a new or old pilot has to do to learn the lessons of an airplane is keep his or her eyes and ears open. The airplane … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Flying, Life in General, Personal | Tagged a lot of fun, A Very Pleasant Surprise, airplanes, Cessnas, especially delightful, flying around the patch, lessons to teach, Phantom II ultra-light, phenomenal climb rate, pilots, power loading, regrets, selling airplanes, shockingly short takeoffs, the wind on my face, warping wings, weight shift, what flying is all about, wing loading | 1 Comment

Discipline

Posted on October 7, 2010 by Joe Clark

Life is all about discipline. Everything you do in your entire life requires discipline and you can only be successful if you have discipline. Especially when it comes to writing. Last month, I read the blog of a young writer … Continue reading →

Posted in Life in General, Personal, Publishing, Writing | Tagged discipline, editing, encouragement, keep up the pace, professional writers, re-writing, success, three pages per day, tone it down, writing | 6 Comments

Extremes

Posted on October 3, 2010 by Joe Clark

I like the extremes, except when it comes to the cold. After the month of September, I cannot go further north than Jacksonville. It is just far too cold that far north. I think my dislike of the cold stems … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Flying, Life in General, Personal | Tagged 700 miles per hour, cold, deep water survival, Extremes, flying really fast, flying really high, flying really low, flying really slow, HC-46 Sea Knight, lower latitudes, Navy North Island, Pacific Ocean, Sea Knight | 3 Comments

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Category Archives: Personal

Impressions

Navigation

My Maternal Grandfathers

My Grandfathers

Telephones

Any Attitude, Any Airspeed

Clark’s Kitty Camp

A Very Pleasant Surprise

Discipline

Extremes

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