Search my Blog
Subscribe
rss
-
Recent Posts
December 2025 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Archives
Recent Comments
- Marie Palachuk on My Grandfathers
- Ingrid on My Grandfathers
- Joe Clark on The Aeronca Chief
- Lindsay Barra (Knowles) on The Aeronca Chief
- Peter Brown on Gladys Ingle
Category Archives: Personal
A Paradigm Shift in the Wind
Sniff the wind. Can you smell it? It is very faint, but it is there. It is the odor of a completely new change coming to the publishing industry. More succinctly, the slight smell on the wind is the fear … Continue reading →
Posted in Life in General, Personal, Publishing, Reading, Writing
|
Tagged a complete change to the publishing industry, A Paradigm Shift in the Wind, A Portrait of Grandma's Dog, access to hundreds of free publications, Amazon Kindle, Cyclotron Factor, e-books, February 2011, first time e-book sales outstripped sales of paperbacks, Gone to meet the British, independent publishers, IPads, Keeping House, Lucky Infantryman, Papa's Problem, Patriots, personal computers, publishers, Road to Barrister, Smartphones, Sunday Morning Prayers for Monday Morning People, Switch Pitchers, The Eighth Day, Will Power, writers
|
Comments Off on A Paradigm Shift in the Wind
Close Calls, Near Misses, and Collisions
I have been following the blogging of a new student pilot from Down Under. Dave refers to himself as a middle-aged pilot learning to fly for the first time in Sydney, Australia. As with pilots all over, he is now … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Life in General, Personal
|
Tagged a middle-aged pilot learning to fly, airplanes, airspeed, altitude, and collisions, Cessnas, close calls, Close Calls Near Misses and Collisions, danger and fright, engine failures, first solo, flight training, flying, inexperienced pilots, instrument flying, judgment, learning to fly, MidLifePilot’s Flying Blog, near misses, pilots, professional pilots, student pilots, Sydney Australia, taildraggers
|
1 Comment
Where Did the Time Go?
Yesterday, you may have noticed there was no post. It is rare that I don’t post my daily blog. Since I started the blog, I only missed one other—Valentine’s Day. I would say, “For obvious reasons,” but it would not … Continue reading →
Posted in Life in General, Personal
|
Tagged 71-year-old flight instructors, Alberto Santos-Dumont, discussions that went far beyond the topics of typical teenagers, getting us into trouble, hit the wrong switch, I thought of those times from long ago, introducing the boys to flying real airplanes, just missed a day, learning fly in rickety 25-year-old steel tube and fabric airplanes, my friend’s juvenile bedroom, posting my daily blog, red sneakers stuck in a closet talking to one another, sibling shenanigans, stretching parental nerves, talking about grownup things, talking all about our lifetimes, the Demoiselle, the look of horror on the faces of their parents, they were very naturally gifted writers, Until we meet again Papa..., Valentine’s Day, we discussed dinosaurs, we discussed Mars, we discussed places beyond our solar system, we discussed Saturn, we discussed space travel, we dreamed dreams, we learned things others could not, we learned things others did not, we learned things others were not interested in, We talked of aerodynamics and flying, We were children then, went back over five decades, Where Did the Time Go?, World War I aircraft, yes we were nerds, “For obvious reasons”
|
1 Comment
Late Night Thoughts
It is a little before 2:30 in the morning. I awake to the storm passing overhead. I lie in bed thinking about the weather. Specifically, I think about the photos I took of the hail in the backyard during the … Continue reading →
Posted in Life in General, Personal
|
Tagged Alabama, awaking to the storm, canceling final exams, Florida, Georgia, Hail, helping the cleanup and search efforts, Lakeland Airport, Late Night Thoughts, listening to the storm, Mississippi, North Florida, on the edge of disasters, postponing graduation, Sun ’N Fun, Tennessee, thankful for being alive, thanking God, the Carolinas, The South, The University of Alabama, thinking about the weather, tornadoes, Virginia
|
Comments Off on Late Night Thoughts
A Lesson in Ricochets
One day, the weapons instructors introduced us to the technique of firing live rounds. Now this is a little different from going down to the rifle range and learning to shoot; what we were going to do was learn how … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying, Life in General, Personal
|
Tagged A Lesson in Ricochets, airspeed, altitude, Cuba, discipline, experienced instructors, firing live rounds, flight training, flying, friends, Guantanamo, guns pattern, inexperienced pilots, judgment, learning to fly, learning to shoot, live fire exercises, Marines, memories, military service, Navy, never overfly the target, pilots, professional pilots, pushing 540 knots, sailors, salty lieutenants and lieutenant commanders, student pilots, TA-4J Skyhawk, the weapons instructors, tracer rounds, tracers ricocheting in all directions
|
4 Comments
OK, My Turn
It’s my turn now, to talk about the napping controllers. This is mainly for the benefit of the non-flying public; most of us who fly realize pilots and passengers face little danger in the case of sleeping controllers at 1 … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying, Life in General, Personal
|
Tagged Air Traffic Controllers, airplanes, Cessnas, controllers, discipline, Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), flight training, flying, high-density traffic operations, inexperienced pilots, instrument flying, J. Mac McClellan, judgment, learning to fly, napping controllers, natural circadian rhythm, newspapers, non-flying public, OK My Turn, pilots, pilots in command, professional pilots, publicizing a problem that is not really a problem, punitive action, sleeping controllers, student pilots, taildraggers, training aircraft, wimps, “Are We Pilots Or Wimps?”
|
6 Comments
Flying at (Density) Altitude
I am a Florida boy who learned to fly at mean sea level. As such, I do not care for a couple of things. The first is cold, the second is high density altitude. Many pilots do not understand the … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Personal
|
Tagged airplanes, airspeed, altitude, Cessnas, discipline, flight training, Florida, flying, friends, inexperienced pilots, judgment, learning to fly, memories, military service, mountains, Navy, pilots, professional pilots, student pilots, taildraggers, training aircraft
|
9 Comments
More Books About Flying
After finishing yesterday’s blog about books on the subject of the Doolittle Raid, I began thinking of other books written of flying that all serious pilots should read. There are so many great novels and historical accounts written of flying that once … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying, History, Life in General, Personal, Reading
|
Tagged a very unconventional life, Beryl Markham, British East Africa, England, Ernest Hemingway, flight training, flying, friends, great novels and historical accounts about flying, inexperienced pilots, judgment, Kenya, learning to fly, memories, More Books About Flying, mountains, Mt. Kilimanjaro, one of the most talented writers ever, open cockpit biplanes, pilots, professional pilots, student pilots, taildraggers, West with the Night, writers
|
3 Comments
Uncle D’s Swift
D was a different kind of pilot. For one, he owned a Globe Temco Swift, powered by a 125-horse Continental. The Swift was a gorgeous airplane; she had tapered wings, a round tail, and pronounced dihedral. I will always remember … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying, Life in General, Personal
|
Tagged 125-horse Continental, a different kind of pilot, a man of action, a tinkerer, airplanes, an airline pilot, D, flight training, Florida, flying, friends, Globe Temco Swift, groundlooped, he could fly anything, he was an ATP, inexperienced pilots, judgment, learning to fly, no tailwheel experience, one of the prettiest airplanes ever built, pilots, professional pilots, taildraggers, the airplane was crashed, The old codgers, the shenanigans, Uncle D’s Swift, vacation traveling by car, years of reconstruction, “Ya’ll ought not do that”
|
3 Comments
Columbia
Yesterday I wrote about the Shuttle Program coming to an end and all the remaining vehicles being retired. As always, it made me think about the first Shuttle launch I ever witnessed with my own eyes. I wrote about that … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation History, History, Personal
|
Tagged a good safety record, Air Force, Columbia, Florida, images of the vehicle streaking across the sky, January 16 2003, landing in Florida on February 1, local law enforcement, lost communication, military personnel, military service, NASA, Navy, professional pilots, regular citizens, Saturday shortly before 9 a.m., search for debris, the Civil Air Patrol, the first Shuttle launch I witnessed, the loss of Columbia, the Shuttle Program, “anomalies”
|
3 Comments
