Pilot Proficiency

“You don’t know how other people live,” my brother said. He was not technically correct. We do know how other people live; we just don’t live that way. We were not exactly sure what he meant. There are a lot of things we don’t do like other people do—for instance, we certainly aren’t stylish dressers. […]

If you’ve ever fantasized about your own private airfield in the backyard, here are a few things to consider about making the grass strip of your dreams a reality.As an aviation marketing professional, I’ve had the good fortune to work for some of the finest aerospace companies in the world. Which means I’ve also had […]

We look through the glass and what do we see?

Just when it seemed like the threat from the coronavirus was subsiding, fall turned to winter, and many of us were forced back inside. We soon got sick and tired of being cooped up. Our national mood seemed to be: enough already with the distancing, masks, 6-feet-apart thing. It soon became clear that people interpreted […]

I became a private pilot 20 years ago, not long after my 19th birthday. Like every new pilot, I couldn’t wait to take my first passenger for a ride. The day after the check ride, I called one of my best college friends and invited him to the airport for a sightseeing flight in a […]

Summertime almost certainly means vacations, cookouts, and maybe some time on the beach. There are airshows, fly-ins, $100 hamburgers, and of course AirVenture at the end of July. Whatever the destination, there’s a good chance you’ll be putting in some flight hours in the coming months. Flying outside your home area means unknown weather patterns […]

Fear is something I frequently confront in many of the activities I choose to do with my free time. From motorcycle racing to surfing to backcountry snowboarding, I am often faced with that familiar chemical release when my brain believes I’ve written a check my body can’t cash. Daniel T. Blumstein, an ecologist at UCLA, […]

On a Sunday morning in April 2004, an air-ambulance helicopter approaching to land in VFR conditions found a blanket of fog forming over the Ukiah Municipal Airport (KUKI) in California. The automatic surface-observation system reported a 100-foot overcast and visibility between 1 and 1¾ miles. The ATP-rated pilot obtained a clearance for the localizer approach […]

When the text blipped across my iPhone screen, I couldn’t help but grin. My friend—and JetBlue captain—Mike Strauss and his wife, Christa, were inviting my wife and I to his newly purchased home in Colorado. One of the attractive aspects of the invitation was that the trip out west would be flown in his Cessna […]

When you combine rockets, planes, boats and kids, you have it all.