Search Results for: airplane things

||| |—|—| | | | It was hot in the shop. It was after six on a summer Friday night and we’d driven to Lakeland, Florida, to talk to Mike about a new interior for the Cheyenne. Our interior was original and we liked the seats, but the carpet and drapes were well past their […]

||| |—|—| | | | 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 […]

If, as hoary nautical tradition holds, it’s bad luck to rename a ship, then the poor old SS Sea Breeze was damned and damned again. The midsize (606 feet) cruise ship began life in 1958 as the Federico C, designed for service out of Genoa for immigrants heading to new lives in Buenos Aires and […]

||| |—|—| | | | It seemed such an innocuous decision at the time. Life had gotten a bit much, I was behind schedule, the late August weather patterns looked bad, and I needed to get home to California for some meetings. “Well,” I thought. “I’ll just leave the airplane in New York for now […]

||| |—|—| | | | Student pilots, worried they don’t have the right stuff, often ask me, “What makes a good pilot?” They’re usually surprised when I don’t cite physical coordination and natural ability. No, if I had to identify one personality trait that makes for a good (read safe) pilot, I’d have to say […]

I never thought I would live to see the day that all civil aviation in this country was grounded. But it happened on September 11. It was spooky as my wife, Stancie, and I walked our dogs in the early evening in the Connecticut suburbs just northeast of New York City. Normally the air is […]

||| |—|—| | | | Last Sunday night, after the houseguests had gone to bed, my wife said, “That was the worst landing you’ve ever made.” My first thought was, “Little do you know! I’ve made some real mini crashes in my day.” The more I thought about it, though, the more I thought, “It […]

No matter how many tests I’ve taken, I still get anxious the night before an exam. In school I never pulled an all-nighter, believing that it was better to get a good night’s sleep and that anything I crammed into my cranium late the night before an exam wouldn’t stay with me after I’d handed […]

Each year I donate a flight to Catalina Island to the fundraising silent auction at my daughter’s school. Each year somebody buys it for a few hundred dollars. I wish I could say that each year the purchaser is delighted with the trip, but in fact hardly anyone ever actually takes it. I suppose that […]

Each year I donate a flight to Catalina Island to the fundraising silent auction at my daughter’s school. Each year somebody buys it for a few hundred dollars. I wish I could say that each year the purchaser is delighted with the trip, but in fact hardly anyone ever actually takes it. I suppose that […]