Search my Blog
Subscribe
rss
-
Recent Posts
May 2024 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
Tag Archives: learning to fly
Seeing the Sun
We were driving across Florida through the Ocala National Forest. It was one of those afternoons good for driving, not so much for flying, unless you held an instrument rating and had filed. We were passing near R-2910 and I … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
|
Tagged 200-1/4, airplanes, airspeed, altitude, clouds, discipline, Flight instructors, flight training, flying, GCA, inexperienced pilots, instrument flying, instrument training, judgment, learning to fly, memories, military service, Navy, PAR, pilots, professional pilots, sailors, student pilots, TA-4J Skyhawk, training aircraft
|
2 Comments
The Magic Plastic Wheel
Ernest K. Gann, the aviation writer of the Twentieth Century, once wrote about the plastic E6-B flight computer that resided in his top pocket of his uniform shirt. Other pilots had other favorite places in or on their uniform for … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Personal
|
Tagged Air Force, airplanes, airspeed, altitude, Cessnas, discipline, E-6B, Ernest K. Gann, flight calculators, Flight instructors, flight training, flying, inexperienced pilots, instrument flying, judgment, learning to fly, military service, Navy, pilots, professional pilots, student pilots, training aircraft, whiz wheels
|
Comments Off on The Magic Plastic Wheel
Ready, Set, GO!
Yesterday, I wrote about my time. Well, there is something more to this time of year than just getting up early and enjoying the mornings. The one great event of this time of year, for all pilots, is the annual … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Life in General, Personal
|
Tagged Air Force, airplanes, airspeed, altitude, aviators, barnstormers, Cessnas, classic and antique airplanes, Flight instructors, flight training, Florida, flying, friends, homebuilts, inexperienced pilots, kitplanes, Lakeland, learning to fly, memories, oshkosh, Ready Set GO!, student pilots, Sun ’N Fun, taildraggers, training aircraft, young aviators
|
Comments Off on Ready, Set, GO!
My Time
This time of year is my time. There is nothing better than the early morning cool, listening to the birds, and feeling the cool damp of the morning while drinking coffee in the sunrise. When I was learning to fly … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying, Life in General, Personal, Writing
|
Tagged a Sam Lyon’s painting, airplanes, airspeed, altitude, an escapee housecat, cats, Cessnas, early morning cool, early morning writing, early spring, flight training, Florida, flying, flying in the early morning, friends, learning to fly, listening to the birds, memories, military service, most pleasant flying memories, Navy, productive times, Reveille, rising early, sitting outside, sunrise, taildraggers, the delightful things I could see, the first cup of coffee, watching Cubs taking off, watching the fog on the lake, writers
|
Comments Off on My Time
Pattern Discipline
Flying the landing pattern is one of those simple tasks that makes use of all the fundamentals of flying. It also uses other skills and disciplines–along with math and physics–and a “dash” of common sense. The start of a good … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
|
Tagged airplanes, airspeed, altitude, Cessna 170, Cessnas, discipline, flight training, flying, inexperienced pilots, judgment, landing, learning to fly, pilots, professional pilots, short field landing, soft field landing, student pilots, taildraggers, training aircraft
|
Comments Off on Pattern Discipline
Maximum Cruise Range
Engineers love playing with numbers, equations, and graph paper. They like playing with lines, French curves, straightedges, and their triangles. From all of their frivolous number-crunching and sketching, sometimes they come up with specific useful information. They, the engineers, discuss … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
|
Tagged airplanes, airspeed, altitude, Cessnas, computers, discipline, flight training, flying, judgment, learning to fly, pilots, professional pilots, student pilots
|
1 Comment
Cruising, Explained
Sometimes, I think there are pilots who do not understand the relationship between speed, building time, and money. Especially those with only a bit of flight time in their logs. They need to build time; yet, they fly their cross-country … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
|
Tagged 55 percent power, 75 percent power, a “need for speed”, airplanes, airspeed, altitude, Cessnas, cruise speeds, Cruising—Explained, discipline, enjoy the ride, flight training, flying, inexperienced pilots, learning to fly, pilots, professional pilots, responsible for the fuel bill, student pilots, the cost of fuel
|
4 Comments
Inexperienced Pilots and the Just Highlander
Someone had an interesting query for Google the other day. It was “highlander aircraft inexperienced pilot.” The Google machine brought the Googler right straight to my blog. When I saw the query in the software, I started thinking about it … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying, Life in General
|
Tagged airplanes, airspeed, altitude, flight training, flying, inexperienced pilots, judgment, learning to fly, pilots, professional pilots, student pilots, taildraggers, training aircraft
|
3 Comments
1st Solo, + 40 Years
As I sit writing this, my mind goes back 40 years, almost to the second, of this instant. I cannot believe so much time has passed since the moment I feel as though I was truly born. I was there, … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flight Instructing, Flying, Life in General, Personal
|
Tagged "her pound of papers and scraps", "land lubbers", a kaleidoscope of images memories events and people, a life aloft, a life-defining moment, a lucky one, A pilot's logbook, a witness and participant, all the secrets to life, an accident statistic, at one time?, Because I flew, Beryl Markham, Fatal statistics, having fun beyond description, I flew alone, just yesterday, learning to fly, my one and only perfect landing, my share of bad landings, over there, passing lessons down to the youngest pilots, proof of my own life in the sky, reserved only for aviators and sailors, Solo + 40 Years, Sunsets and sunrises, the first time I truly spread my wings, the good and the bad, the other side, the touch of their grandchildren, this instant, too, Was I that young, West with the Night, why he or she was so unlucky, why I was so very lucky, “young whipper-snapper”
|
5 Comments
Looking Both Ways
In teaching student pilots, I have been amazed that a few will cross a runway or taxiway without looking. At airports with control towers and active ATC, the instances of this happening are more pronounced than at airports without ground control. The … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Personal
|
Tagged a late Friday afternoon, airplanes, airports with control towers, Cessnas, clearance to our ramp, crossing a runway or taxiway without looking, discipline, Flight instructors, flight training, flying, inexperienced pilots, judgment, learning to fly, look both ways, Looking Both Ways, making the approach to another airport, pilots, professional pilots, similar runway patterns, student pilots, teaching student pilots, the mighty PA-44 Seminole, using the radio
|
2 Comments
