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Tag Archives: flying
Modern Day Heroes
When people might ask about heroes, a few names always come to mind. They are names from the era of naval aviation just preceding my time. A couple of those names somewhat go together; James Bond Stockdale and Douglas Hegdahl. … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation History, Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged A Couple of My Heroes, Air Force, airplanes, captivity, commitment to God, discipline, Douglas Hegdahl, flying, Hanoi Hilton, Hornet pilots, In Love and War, James Bond Stockdale, judgment, military service, Navy, Navy attack pilot, Navy North Island, required reading, Richard A. Stratton, SERE School, Sybil Stockdale, the North Vietnamese, USS Canberra
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What Makes a Good CFI?
Some believe you must be a great pilot to be a good flight instructor. Others think you have to have great teaching skills. Then there are those who believe it all boils down to patience. For those who believe it … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged airplanes, discipline, flying, good flight instructor, great pilot, inexperienced pilots, instrument flying, judgment, learning to fly, patience, pilots, professional pilots, professional reputation, stress, student pilots, teacher, the Law of Effect, training aircraft, What Makes a Good CFI?
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Heroes
My student and I finished our flight a little early and when we returned to the ramp, I saw an early model Cessna 210 sitting in front of the flight dispatch building. From afar, the airplane looked good. As I … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged a true American hero, aeronautical engineering, airplanes, an older gentleman, Cessna 210, Cessnas, Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket, Eastern Airlines, Edwards Air Force Base, flying, Hawker Siddeley, heroes, just another Cessna pilot, military service, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics' (NACA), Navy, North American Aviation, pilots, professional pilots, Scott Crossfield, test pilot, the fastest human alive, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee for Science and Technology, the X-15, World War II
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4 Comments
The ICON A5
Yesterday, I had an exchange of comments with one of the readers which prompted me to send her a link to the ICON A5 aircraft. If you have never seen this new airplane, and you are a pilot who likes … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying
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Tagged airplanes, amphibious airplanes, Cessnas, flying, hangar fees, he ICON Complete Airplane Parachute recovery system, learning to fly, Lycoming, pilots who like the water, Rotax 912 ULS, safe low-speed handling capability, seaplanes, the folding wing, The ICON A5, training aircraft, very impressive light sport aircraft
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2 Comments
What Makes a Cessna 172 So Safe?
OK, so I was checking out the stats on the blog and I came across this search term. Someone had actually asked the question of Google or Bing or Yahoo, “What makes a Cessna 172 so safe?” What a great … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flight Instructing, Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged airplanes, Cessna, Cessna 172P, Cessna 210 Centurion, Cessnas, Clyde Cessna, engine failures, flying, gross weight, inexperienced pilots, maneuvering speed, stall speed, the 100-series Cessnas, What Makes a Cessna 172 So Safe?
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4 Comments
Building Time
Today’s young pilots face the same age-old number one question as pilots in the last century: namely – how do I get a job? Of course, as it was in the Twentieth Century, so it is in the 21st. New … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Life in General
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Tagged airline industry, airplanes, Alaska, banner towing, Building Time, bush flying, Catch-22, charter flying, checkrides, chicken and egg conundrum, commercial pilot positions, flight instructing, flying, flying jobs, flying skydivers, great time building, how do I get a job?, inexperienced pilots, insurance criteria, judgment, learning to fly, mountains, Part 135, professional pilots, sightseeing flights, taildraggers, the menial jobs of aviation, training aircraft, working for a living, young pilots
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4 Comments
The Perfect Flying Machine
Every time an airplane makes the news, someone makes a comment about the “Piper Cub.” Now the airplane might have been a Cessna 210, a Beechcraft A-36, maybe even a King Air, but for many in the public, if the … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying
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Tagged airplanes, Beechcraft A-36, Boeing 700 series airliner, Bradford PA, Cessna 210, Clarence Gilbert Taylor, Continental A-40 engine, Continental A-65 engine, flying, J-2 Cub, King Air, learning to fly, Piper J-3 Cub, student pilots, taildraggers, Taylor Brothers Aircraft Corporation, Taylor E-2 Cub, The Perfect Flying Machine, the “Piper Cub”, training aircraft, William T. Piper
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1 Comment
Get Lost!
Sometimes I like to get lost. Most of the time however, I prefer not. I don’t particularly enjoy getting lost if I am flying, but even then, if I have enough gas and know I can stay clear of controlled … Continue reading →
Posted in Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged controlled airspace, Delta Flight 502, E6-B, FBO, flying, Get Lost, getting lost, global positioning satellite (GPS) systems, GPS, handheld GPS, plotter, restricted airspace, Robert Frost, sectional charts, the Ocala National Forest, the road less traveled, “The Road Not Taken”
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2 Comments
The Art of Climbing
Getting to altitude involves more than crawling into an airplane, starting the engine, and pointing the nose up. Pilots must consider many aspects factoring into the initial climb and the following ascent to cruise altitude. Some of these include the … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Teaching
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Tagged airplanes, altitude, best angle of climb, best rate of climb, clear an obstacle, cruise altitude, cruise climb, failure to maintain flying speed, Flight instructors, flying, getting to altitude, headwind, initial climb, learning to fly, NTSB accident reports, other climb techniques, private pilot, short field take off, soft field take off, spins, stalls, student pilots, tailwind, The Art of Climbing, Vx, Vy
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The Front Side and the Backside!
One of the more complex concepts for students or inexperienced pilots to grasp involves flying on the “front side” or the “backside” of the power curve. On the front side, everything seems to be working normally while on the backside, … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Teaching
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Tagged aerodynamic control, flight instructor, flying, helping your students “get it”, inexperienced pilots, maximum endurance speed, motorists, mountains, pilots, region of normal command, region of reversed command, stall speed, steep hills, student pilots, Teaching Speed, the backside of the power curve, the front side of the power curve, the gas pedal, total aircraft control, young flight instructor
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5 Comments
