Close

Member Login

Invalid username or password.
Incorrect Login. Please try again.

not a member? sign-up now!

Signing up could earn you gear and it helps to keep offensive content off of our site.

Home ›
Default Blog Header

Recent Posts

Blog Categories

Going Direct by Robert Goyer

About Robert Goyer

In Going Direct, Senior Editor Robert Goyer airs his thoughts on some of the most controversial aviation issues of the day.

Read full bio >

September 01, 2010
How to Fly Until You're 85 8
by Robert Goyer
Enlarge Photo
Photo: illustration by Robert Goyer

In a way, Sport Pilots have it made. When it’s time for the rest of us to visit our Aviation Medical Examiners and cough hard, they can just glance at their driver’s license, keep that $100 in their wallet, have an extra a cup of coffee or take a few laps around the pattern. And a lot of us doubt just how much good “the medical” does. We’ve all heard stories of pilots who got a clean bill of health from their AME only to drop dead the next day. Apocryphal or not, the concept is clear. The pilot physical, especially the Third Class version, is a cursory look at a pilot’s health.

August 24, 2010
After 10 Years, Cirrus Chute Controversy Persists 11
by Robert Goyer
Enlarge Photo
Photo: Cirrus Aircraft

It was on a cool Texas morning back in October of 2002 when the pilot of a Cirrus SR22 on departure under clear skies felt the controls of his bird acting very strangely. Something just wasn’t right, and a quick check of the left wing showed what it was: the aileron was hanging by a single hinge, leaving the pilot with a hard choice: fly the disabled airplane as it was back to the field and risk losing control and dying in the process or pull the chute and take his chances that the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) would work as advertised and save the day.

August 18, 2010
An American Pioneer Retires 3
by Robert Goyer
Enlarge Photo
Photo: Robinson Helicopter

It's always interesting to see how success changes a company. In aviation (and in other industries), we can all point to a few examples of innovative, entrepreneurial companies that made it big and, in their success, lost all of the vision and drive that made them great to begin with. Those companies, sadly, are not rare cases.

The ones that start lean, earn success and then somehow, some way keep that spark, those are the rare ones. In aviation I can name two or three of them. That's it.

August 11, 2010
The Stevens Crash and Scud Running 5
by by Robert Goyer
Enlarge Photo
Photo: illustration by Robert Goyer

I don't know what caused the the crash in Alaska that claimed five lives, including that of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, but the conversation has been all about the high stakes game that is continued VFR into IMC in high terrain. There are certainly other possible factors, but I think everyone would be surprised to see that not be a factor in this crash.

August 09, 2010
Texting While Flying 4
by by Robert Goyer
Enlarge Photo
Photo: illustration by Robert Goyer

Every year thousands of drivers and passengers in cars are killed in accidents caused in whole or in part by drivers talking or texting on cell phones. And let's face it. This problem is only going to get worse. With my Blackberry, I could, if I wanted to, check my Facebook while tooling down I-35 at 70 mph. I actually see people doing it all the time. Well, I don't think they're checking my FaceBook account, but they're doing some serious thumb typing nonetheless.

August 04, 2010
Great Fun Until Somebody Gets Hurt ... Or Worse 13
by Robert Goyer
Enlarge Photo
Photo: Illustration: Robert Goyer

One of the occupational hazards of being an aviation writer is that you sometimes run into pilots who want to show you what their airplane can do . . . right up to the ragged edge of the envelope. And they're almost always going to show you regardless of whether you want to go along for the ride or not. In fact, I'm tempted to say that not wanting to go along with it is a big draw for these guys. The end result can be terrifying.

July 28, 2010
Screwing up with ATC ... Painlessly 2
by Robert Goyer

One of the greatest fears for new pilots, John King observed at a press conference earlier this week, isn't crashing or getting lost or bouncing a landing. It's talking on the radio.

July 27, 2010
HAL is NOT in Control of Your Airplane 3
by Robert Goyer
Enlarge Photo
Photo: Cirrus Design

At the risk of stating the extremely obvious, pilots like to be pilots because we like to fly airplanes. We take great pride in being the ones to command our craft, to tell them where we want them to go, how fast we want to them to go there and in what configuration to make that journey.

July 20, 2010
What the iPad Ain't 9
by Robert Goyer
Enlarge Photo
Photo: by Robert Goyer

As my envious friends are aware, I’ve had an Apple iPad in my hot little hands for the past two weeks. They are right to be envious. To put it in a nutshell, it rocks. It’s a great music device, a fabulous web browser, a wonderful e-book and magazine reader, and a big bright and colorful photo slideshow viewer. I carry it around with me all the time now.

From an aviation point of view, the iPad is an interesting device: Interesting as in really great and interesting as in a bit troubling.

July 14, 2010
Occam's Razor and the Colgan Crash 4
by Robert Goyer
Enlarge Photo
Photo: NTSB

I almost never speculate on the cause of a crash early on, but in the case of the crash of Colgan Flight 3407, I weighed in earlier than I ever had before. Within a couple of days, when icing was still seen as a likely cause, it seemed to me that the cause was far simpler, the crew's failure to control the airplane. That is, in fact, what the NTSB, a year later, determined to be the probable cause of the crash.

Here's the text

Page 1 of 12
next >