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Tag Archives: airplanes
Where is My Jetcar?
When the clocks ticked over from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000, everyone in the entire world collectively held their breath to see if all of the computers would crash. There had been a great deal written and published … Continue reading →
Posted in Life in General, Personal
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Tagged 2001 A Space Odyssey, airplanes, Apollo, baby-boomers, Bones, Captain Kirk, code writers, computers, December 31 1999, flying, flying cars, Gemini, Gene Roddenberry, George Jetson, Global Positioning Satellites, hardware, internal clocks, January 1 2000, Jetcar, John Young, Michael Collins, New Year’s Eve, old-fashioned, recognizing the year 2000, Saturday morning cartoons, Scottie, software, Spock, Stanley Kubrick, Star Trek, the end of the world, the last Gemini mission, the moon, the New Millennium, the Starship USS enterprise, this perspective, turn of the century, Where is My Jetcar?
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Happy Birthday, Pan Am
Today in 1927, Key West birthed Pan American World Airways out of a small maintenance hangar near Duval Street in Key West. Kelly McGillis, the actress who co-starred with Tom Cruise in Top Gun, presently owns the building purportedly to be the … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History, Life in General
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Tagged 2001 A Space Odyssey, airplanes, Boeing 747, Clipper flying boats, Clipper Juan T. Trippe, Duval Street, flying, Fokker monoplanes, Happy Birthday Pan Am, Havana Cuba, Juan Trippe, Kelly McGillis, Key West, Lockerbie Scotland, Pan Am, Pan Am 103, Pan Am 73, Pan American Airways, Pan American World Airways, pilots, professional pilots, SCADTA, Stanley Kubric, Tenerife, the first Boeing 747 to carry passengers, the unofficial flagship airlines of the United States, the worst aviation accident in history, Top Gun, William Allen, World War II
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1 Comment
Intro to Instrument Flying
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
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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
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1 Comment
The Lost Promises
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
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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
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The Flying Fort Becomes Operational
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
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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
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2 Comments
The Wife Conspiracies
I have started to believe there might be conspiracy among some wives. From my observations and personal experience, I have noticed many wives tend think their husbands are hard of hearing, while the corresponding husbands believe their wives mumble. Uhmmm… From personal experience, … Continue reading →
Posted in Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged airplanes, Cessnas, flight training, flying, hearing, hearing loss, judgment, learning to fly, pilots, student pilots, talking to husbands while they are in the shower, talking to husbands while working on something that hums or grinds or beeps, talking to the back of the closet, talking to the back of the ’fridge, The Wife Conspiracies, training aircraft
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4 Comments
Look Ma! No Propellers!
Today, the jet age truly turns 65 years old. It was born when the prototype XP-84 Thunderjet flew for the first time at Muroc Army Airfield on this day in 1946. Current jets are far more powerful than the first … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Life in General
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Tagged aerial refueling, Air Force, airplanes, Alexander Kartveli, control reversal, Edwards Air Force Base, escort, flying, ground support, interdiction, J-35-GE-15 engines, jet age, Korea, Korean War, Look Ma! No Propellers!, military service, Muroc Army Airfield, National Security Act of 1947, P-47 Thunderbolt, Republic Aviation Corporation, the Air Force demonstration team, the Thunderbirds, the United States Air Force, World War II, wrinkling fuselage skins, XP-84 Thunderjet
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The DC-9
Forty-six years ago today, the DC-9 flew for the very first time. Douglas Aircraft began researching the need for short- to medium-range airliners in the late 1950s. The original thought was to design a smaller version of their popular DC-8, … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History
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Tagged airplanes, aviation history, Caravelle aircraft, DC-3, DC-8, Douglas Aircraft, flying, integral boarding stairs, low ground clearance, maximum range, McDonnell Douglas, Pratt & Whitney JT8D turbofan engines, professional pilots, revenue operation, short field capabilities, smaller operators, Sud Aviation, The DC-9, the Long Beach Division of Boeing Commercial Airplanes
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Brothers to the Rescue, Hermanos Al Rescate
Geographically, Cuba is a wonderful place, truly a paradise. Politically, however, it is a mess. Some of the recent news about Cuban politics includes Castro finally admitting socialism does not work and that the Cuban economic situation is broken. The … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged airplanes, Brothers to the Rescue, Carlos Costa, Cessna 337 Skymaster, Cessnas, Cuba, Cuban politics, Cuban refugees, Cubans risk their lives trying to escape, dreamed of flying, Fidel Castro, Florida, flying, flying career, free Cubans, Hermanos Al Roscate, humanitarian, judgment, Michael Moore's movie, paradise, pilots, professional pilots, quiet confidence, rafting to freedom, shootdown, socialism, the Cuban economic situation, the Florida Straits, volunteer pilots and observers
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3 Comments
A Change of Seasons
Well, we have finally moved from the “cold” season to the “warm.” Many new to the Sunshine State bemoan the fact that we have “no seasons” down here. Some have gone on to say they miss the turning of the … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged A Change of Seasons, aches, airplanes, Cessnas, cracking joints, crankiness, engine pre-heats, flying, friends, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, lke a bear in hibernation, more creakiness, northern visitors, oshkosh, set the thermostats from heat to a/c, Southerners, the color green, the colors of spring, the EAA Convention, the Sunshine State, the “cold” season, the “warm” season, variation, Wisconsin, “Feed the Fish”, “no seasons” the cold of winter
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2 Comments
