Monthly Archives: March 2011

Intro to Instrument Flying

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Joe Clark

When I was a very young and most inexperienced private pilot with all of about 100 hours, I had the opportunity to participate in an instrument flight flown by a fellow student from college. It was a most interesting and … Continue reading →

Posted in Flying, Life in General, Personal | Tagged a fresh instrument rating, a most inexperienced private pilot, airplanes, blissful ignorance, breaking out, Cessnas, crawl before you walking, cumulonimbus, dark inside the cloud, discipline, flight training, Florida, flying, flying the airplane, inexperienced pilots, instrument flying, Intro to Instrument Flying, judgment, keeping it under control, learning to fly, other career fields, pilots, probable thunderstorms, professional pilots, radar vectors, spring day in Florida, student pilots, the darkest moment, training aircraft, weak cold front | 1 Comment

Driving Costs Down

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Joe Clark

A couple of people have asked if I were having car trouble since I blogged about it on Wednesday. Actually, my Camry is running very well thanks to my neighbor, Dan, (Thanks, Dan!) and a set of new tires from … Continue reading →

Posted in Life in General, Personal | Tagged 100000 miles, 2001 Camry, avoiding overly costly repair bills, better gas mileage, buying a new car, car mechanic, Car Troubles – A Modern Day Nightmare, car’s gas tank, contemporary cars, control heat due to friction, costly repairs, creature comforts and technology, Driving Costs Down, electronic ignition, engine, enhanced crashworthiness, flatbed tow truck, global positioning satellite (GPS) systems, happy ending to this day, lubricating metal parts, luxury autos, maintenance, metal alloys and composites, oil, oil change every 3000 to 4000 miles, oil level, passing 300000 miles, premium gas, proper tire inflation, recommended preventative maintenance, regular gas, regular maintenance, reliability, Renting a car, routine and regular maintenance, serious service difficulties, sports cars, the question of maintenance, your car in the shop | Comments Off

Fighting FIVE Takes the US Navy into the Jet Age

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Joe Clark

Sixty-three years ago today, Fighter Squadron FIVE became the first Navy squadron to land jet fighters aboard an aircraft carrier. On March 10, 1948, they took their brand new North American FJ-1 Fury jets to sea to land aboard the … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Aviation History | Tagged aircraft carriers, Curtis F6C-4 Hawk, F-14A Tomcats, F-8 Crusader, Fighting FIVE Takes the US Navy into the Jet Age, Grumman F9F–2 Panther, jet fighters, last of the true gunfighters, McDonnell-Douglas F-4 five Phantom, military service, naval aviation, Navy, Neil Armstrong, North American FJ-1 Fury, open cockpit biplanes, sailors, Sundowners, The Korean War, The Screaming Eagles, Top Gun, USS Boxer, USS Essex, USS Kitty Hawk, USS Ticonderoga, USS Vinson, VF-1, VF-111, VF-3S The Striking Eagles, VF-5, VF-51, Vietnam, World War II | 2 Comments

Car Troubles – A Modern Day Nightmare

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Joe Clark

It is 10 a.m. in the morning and you were supposed to be at work two hours ago. Now you stand in the rain on the roadside watching a tow truck driver hoisting your car onto a flatbed tow truck. … Continue reading →

Posted in Life in General | Tagged avoiding overly costly repair bills, better gas mileage, car mechanic, Car Troubles – A Modern Day Nightmare, costly repairs, electronic ignition, enhanced crashworthiness, flatbed tow truck, happy ending to this day, metal alloys and composites, proper tire inflation, regular maintenance, Renting a car, the question of maintenance, your car in the shop | Comments Off

On Being a Writer

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Joe Clark

One thing about being a writer is that you have to write well, especially when it comes to “selling yourself.” In other words, when you put together a proposal or write a query letter to an editor, the writing has … Continue reading →

Posted in Life in General, Personal, Publishing, Writing | Tagged a rejection letter, an example of the author’s commitment to the craft, correspondence, dedication, discipline, editors, email, grammatical errors, homophonic errors, media mail, On being a writer, patience, proposal, publishers, query letter, the Internet, typos, working with undisciplined writers, writing soundly, you have to write well, “clean” manuscripts, “selling yourself” | Comments Off

The Bell 47

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Joe Clark

Back in the late fifties, maybe the early sixties, there was a great TV show I really enjoyed. The name of the show was The Whirlybirds. It was a show featuring the Bell 47. Today, is the 65th anniversary of … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation History, Flying | Tagged 200 horsepower Franklin engine, 260 horsepower Lycoming engine, 8055th, 8063rd, 8076th, 8209th, 8225th, 8228th, air shows, Bell 47G, Bell Model 30 prototype, empty weight, fabric cabins, field hospitals, flight training, helicopter, M*A*S*H, medevac procedures, metal cabins, military service, open cockpits, operating weight, retired from military service, The 4077th MASH Unit, the 8054th, The Bell 47, The Korean War, The Whirlybirds, training aircraft | 1 Comment

The Amazing Kindle (and other e-readers)

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Joe Clark

Okay, so I finally broke down and bought Ardis a Kindle. With both of us being complete and unabashed bibliophiles, we were not so sure about reading anything off an electronic device. Even though we use computers all the time, … Continue reading →

Posted in Life in General, Personal, Publishing, Reading | Tagged Amazon.com, and sentence and a e-books, authors, bibliophiles, books, convenient pay by credit card, distribution problems, easier shopping, electronic devices, military members, printing, publishers, reading and buying public, reading on the Kindle, room for old-fashioned books and e-books, royalty schedules, sailors, soldiers, Steve Jobs, storage, the IPad, The Kindle | 3 Comments

The Lost Promises

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Joe Clark

So, Reveille sounds at 0530 this morning as it always does for me. Only I know longer hear the bugler or the voice over the 1MC calling, “Reveille, Reveille, Reveille, all hands turn…” After years of hearing the calls, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flight Instructing, Flying, Life in General, Personal | Tagged A plane in every garage!, airplanes, all hands, and Piper, aviation news, Beech, Cessna, Cessnas, flight training, flying, increasing insurance premiums, learning to fly, little grass airstrips, LSA Dream, Mom and Pop flying schools, new LSA airplanes, pilots, product liability, Reveille, student pilots, taildraggers, the 1MC, the American Dream, The Lost Promises, training aircraft | Comments Off

Time

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Joe Clark

Time is fleeting, so quickly it is frightening. Yet, many seem not to notice. They are concerned only with their lives at the moment, thinking not of the future, or of the end. It is coming though, and nothing they … Continue reading →

Posted in Life in General, Personal | Tagged Aeschylus, bunch of bunk, discipline, do whatever you wish, fleeting, friends, frightening, have a plan, important things in life, judgment, knowledge, living a full life, mistakes in their past, proper guidance, still must learn, the end, the future, Time, time growing old, where the time went, young person, youth is wasted | Comments Off

The Flying Fort Becomes Operational

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Joe Clark

One of the airplanes I have always liked is the B-17. When I was a kid, I studied as much about the B-17 as possible; I believed it was the airplane that saved the world in World War II and … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation History, History, Life in General | Tagged airplanes, Army Air Corps, B-17, B-17 Flying Fortress, Edward Curtis Wells, Europe, Gifford Emory, heroes of all of the free world, Langley Field VA, Les Tower, Major Peter Hill, military service, Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet engines, reporter Richard Williams of the Seattle Times, Second Bombardment Group, The Flying Fort Becomes Operational, the Model 299, the Pacific, World War II, Wright R-1820 Cyclone engines | 2 Comments

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Monthly Archives: March 2011

Intro to Instrument Flying

Driving Costs Down

Fighting FIVE Takes the US Navy into the Jet Age

Car Troubles – A Modern Day Nightmare

On Being a Writer

The Bell 47

The Amazing Kindle (and other e-readers)

The Lost Promises

Time

The Flying Fort Becomes Operational

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