Jay Hopkins

After I wrote my article last month about some of the mindsets that can get us into trouble, I found an excellent example of one of those situations. Air Transat Flight TS236 was an Airbus A330 that was on its way from Toronto to Lisbon. The discovery of metallic particles in the oil system about […]

Recently I attended a talk given by Daryl Bussert titled “Lessons from the Commander.” Daryl is the safety officer for JAARS, Inc. (originally Jungle Aviation and Radio Service), which is the technical support organization that serves Wycliff Bible Translators. I thought that the “commander” in his title might refer to someone in authority, but it […]

When the first Flight Management Systems (FMS) were being introduced many years ago, a common phrase heard in the cockpit was, “What’s it doing now?” Up to that point it was the pilot who analyzed the raw data and made all the decisions about when to change over to a new fix or a new […]

I have often marveled at the illustrations that John Borra does for my articles. Some topics have obvious possibilities, but others don’t seem to lend themselves to an illustration. In fact, more than once I have sent my article in wondering what on earth John would come up with, and every time I have been […]

One of the more difficult concepts for the student pilot to grasp is the idea of angle of attack. I pulled The Student Pilot’s Flight Manual, by William K Kershner, off the shelf and found that Kershner uses words like “confusing” three times in his description of angle of attack. Kershner starts with a simple […]

Earlier this year I was presented with an opportunity. There was a winter Field Training Exercise and no one was available to take the cadets from the Payson Squadron. It would involve driving the cadets up to the top of the Mogollon Rim where we would join other cadets and senior members at a campsite […]

Are the $100 hamburgers getting old? Have you visited every airport restaurant within 100 miles so many times that the staff greets you by name and has your favorite meal ready? Did you already give all your friends rides, so that you are now reduced to approaching people on the street, like the press gangs […]

||| |—|—| | | | Consider the following scenarios: …You are on final approach to a major airport when your airplane unexpectedly hits wake turbulence, which turns it upside down. …As you initiate your takeoff roll, the gust front from an approaching storm blows you into the air at a low airspeed and high angle […]

So you’ve decided to learn how to fly. No problem! Just open the yellow pages, choose a local flight school, call for an appointment and you will soon be linked with a professional flight instructor who loves teaching almost as much as he or she loves flying. When I asked for feedback from Flying readers […]