Monthly Archives: March 2011

Sun N Fun Gets Slammed

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Joe Clark

It is early, but late. I have slept too long. It is after 6 a.m. and I am usually up and writing by 5:45 most mornings. But last night was a late night and so I understand why I am … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Life in General, Personal | Tagged a comforting rain, airplanes, airplanes upside down, Cessnas, double-check the weather forecasts, editors, Florida, flying, friends, get up to make coffee, go back to sleep the word processor, hangars demolished, lightning and thunder, open cockpit biplanes, pilots, professional pilots, radar screens, rain, student pilots, Sun N Fun, Sun N Fun Gets Slammed, taildraggers, Tampa, The Lakeland Airport, the pinging of hail, the Sunshine State, the telecommunications expert, thunder, tornadoes, training aircraft, typesetters, typewriters, up and writing by 5:45 | 1 Comment

The Almost Did Club

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Joe Clark

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 | 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” | Comments Off

A Writing Template

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Joe Clark

While writing can be easy for some, it can be a very difficult endeavor for others. I don’t know how many times I have watched students and adults fret endlessly over a writing assignment. Here are a few rules for … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Tagged a single-sentence zinger, A Writing Template, collecting a check for your writing, conclusion, few rules for making writing easier, fretting endlessly over writing, introduction, journalistic terms, keep your writing simple, less is more, main body, payment for writing, pique reader’s interest, the conclusion, the lead, understanding format, writing a freelance article, writing can be easy, writing can be very difficult, writing logically | Comments Off

An Instant in Time, A Crossing of Paths

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Joe Clark

I was the lucky winner in the fall of 1984. Somehow, I won the squadron lottery to represent the outfit in Las Vegas at the Annual Convention of Naval Aviation—Tailhook. In September, when it was time to go, I travelled … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Life in General, Personal | Tagged 1986, a complete psychological study of the human condition, a friendly face, a friendly politician, a special place in history, An Instant in Time A Crossing of Paths, Annual Convention of Naval Aviation, Atlanta, boating, dropPING a couple of bills on games of chance, fishing, flying of jets Monday through Friday, Geraldine Ferraro, Guantanamo, her vice-presidential run for the White House, Las Vegas, lobster diving, lucky winner, Norfolk VA, racquetball, running into old friends, sailing, scuba diving, tailhook, Walter Mondale, watching people, wingman | 1 Comment

The Last V-bomb Casualties

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Joe Clark

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 | 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” | 1 Comment

The Smell of Sunshine

Posted on March 26, 2011 by Joe Clark

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 | 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 | 4 Comments

Learning to Read

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Joe Clark

I always knew I was going to be a pilot and I also knew I would be a writer. When it came to reading and writing, there are a couple of people to whom I am very indebted. My mother … Continue reading →

Posted in Life in General, Personal, Reading, Writing | Tagged baby-books, bookmobiles, books appropriate to age-level, boyhood crushes, Florida, friends, Hillsborough County, Learning to Read, Marianne, mom, new worlds, pictures in books, Pierce Junior High School, pilot, reading and writing, Saturday morning, Tampa, The world of words!, writer, writers | 3 Comments

Sky King!

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Joe Clark

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 | 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 | 6 Comments

Teaching Stalls, Part II

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Joe Clark

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 | 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? | 2 Comments

Teaching Stalls, Part I

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Joe Clark

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 →

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Monthly Archives: March 2011

Sun N Fun Gets Slammed

The Almost Did Club

A Writing Template

An Instant in Time, A Crossing of Paths

The Last V-bomb Casualties

The Smell of Sunshine

Learning to Read

Sky King!

Teaching Stalls, Part II

Teaching Stalls, Part I

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