Sam Weigel

As the Boeing 737 descends through 25,000 feet, we break through a thin overcast layer over the Columbia River and a stunning Cascades panorama appears before our eyes. It’s an unusually clear day for early spring, and from my jumpseat perch there are incredible views from Glacier Peak all the way south to the Three […]

It’s a basic fact of aviation: Airplanes love to be flown. When they sit, bad things happen. Engines corrode, critters set up residence and basic maintenance gets neglected until the airplane finally flies, at which point expensive stuff breaks. Hourly costs skyrocket, and the crestfallen owner flies even less. When I bought my 1953 Piper […]

Her name was Maddie, she was 11 years old, and she had never been in a small plane before. Dark-haired and dark-eyed, smaller and shyer than her giggling friends, Maddie had surprised me by shooting her hand skyward when I asked who wanted to sit up front. “OK, but just so you know, you might […]

Dear me, I must be a glutton for punishment. Hot on the heels of declaring that “Taildraggers Suck” (not everyone got the tongue-in-cheek humor behind the column’s title or necessarily read any further), I’m about to reach out and grab the third rail of aviation opinion: warbirds. As I recall, Martha Lunken took some serious […]

“Let’s go. It’s time.” With this self-admonition, I stood up, glanced in the mirror, straightened my tie and left the hotel room. It was only a quarter to 7, but there was no way I was going to risk being late today. To my surprise, the lobby was already filled with 22 men and women […]

It was a perfect early summer day in Minnesota, warm and clear with a wisp of breeze, the sort of day that we northern fliers will be dreaming of when the snow flies — right about the time you’re reading this. I relaxed on our back deck, savoring my morning coffee and watching our dog, […]

Tick, tock. I resisted the temptation to look at my watch, then stole a furtive glance into my shirt cuff. Still only 2:15 p.m. I’d been at Horizon Air’s operations center on the edge of the Portland International Airport for a little over four hours, but it seemed much longer, and now time was slowing to […]

I’m not proud to say it, but last winter got the best of this northern aviator. The face-numbing cold and monochromatic gloom wore at me until I just couldn’t take it anymore. The breaking point came on a brutally raw January morning as I attempted to preheat and start my Piper Pacer after it sat […]

The couriers’ taillights faded in the distance as I pulled the Piper Navajo’s rear cabin door closed and silence fell anew over the darkened North Las Vegas Airport. I clambered over the cargo net restraining nearly a hundred stacked bank bags, slid into the front left seat, and quickly went through the preflight checklist and starting flows. “Master switch on, magnetos on, mixtures rich, left fuel […]

It was a bright, bitter morning in the high desert, and a late-winter gale scoured the Inyokern, California, airport as I taxied the Piper Lance to a cavernous heap of a 1940s-vintage hangar and shut down the engine. I paused to listen to the mournful wind as it jostled the little freighter, and then gathered […]