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Captain Beverley Bass will never forget that moment, 20 years ago. She was piloting American Airlines Flight 49 from Paris to Dallas over the North Atlantic when the news came across an air-to-air frequency: Airplanes had hit each of twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City in a terrorist attack. Soon […]

The silence on the Potomac Approach frequency was stark. It was September 17, 2001, and I was flying a Piper Archer from KFDK in Frederick, Maryland, down to Newport News (KPHF), Virginia, logging two hours down and 1.7 on the return. I filed IFR on a day of shockingly blue skies because that was the […]

When the original Midway Airlines closed its doors a few decades ago, they took away one of the best flying jobs I’d ever had up to that point. Luckily, the opportunity to fly right seat on a business jet appeared, though I knew next to nothing about business aviation at the time. The chief pilot […]

The focus of my 34-year career with the airlines has always been passenger safety and comfort. But on this particular flight to London, the focus went to the dogs. My copilot, Steve, and I were the links in a safety chain that prevented the early demise of one beloved collie. Unbeknownst to its owner, the […]

What should an aircraft manufacturer do with a talented engineering team that just wrapped up the successful certification test program for a jet that would go on to win the Collier Trophy and Flying Innovation Award in the same year? One option would be to put them straight back to work developing the next iteration […]

“Hey, Dick. Just so you know, the airport is closed.” It’s Max calling from the FBO in Lebanon, New Hampshire, about an hour before our proposed takeoff time. “There’s ice on the runway; they are scraping it now. If we can just get a little more sun, it won’t take long before they’ll open 18/36.” […]

The path to becoming a professional pilot has evolved a lot in the past eight years, following the implementation of new regulations and testing guidance governing how pilots of transport-category aircraft obtain certification. While it’s possible to fly professionally with a certificate for commercial single-engine operations, most pilots intending to fly for the airlines, commuter […]

Sometimes the urge to fly strikes when I least expect it. It’s always there, mind you, but sometimes it lies dormant while my attention is elsewhere, only to suddenly resurface. Take yesterday morning, for example. I was lounging in Windbird’s cockpit, sipping coffee and enjoying the warm Caribbean breeze while planning an upcoming sail to […]

“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 […]

We were bumping through the clouds at Flight Level 300, unable to escape the clutches of a low, winter jet stream thanks to 167 burly souls on board and 26,000 pounds of jet-A sloshing in the tanks. Under such conditions this McDonnell Douglas finds itself just a little short of wing, and the prudent pilot […]