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As summer takes hold, the days are getting long. Theyre also getting hot, which means the other thing that will be getting long is takeoff distance.

High temperatures – and therefore high density altitudes – affect every airplane, single-engine or multi, piston or jet. Higher elevations and bigger payloads only make the problem worse.

In a single-engine airplane, the loss of engine power makes the next step pretty easy to determine. If the engine failure happens on the ground, you will stop. If the failure happens in the air, you will land. Sir Isaac Newton assures us that this is so. Such outcomes are non-negotiable and cannot be changed.

In a multi-engine plane, it is not alway…

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 […]

||| |—|—| | | | At first glance, I don’t even recognize him. Nine years ago, Hank Potter was a vibrant, jolly soul, full of laughter, fire and stories of being Jimmy Doolittle’s navigator on the famous B-25 raid of Tokyo in 1942. Today, he and the 11 other “Doolittle Raiders” who were able to […]

CAE’s full-flight simulators create an illusion of reality that can fool even the most cynical pilots. A web-based distance-learning program is under development. At least the oxygen masks didn’t drop down,” I said defensively as I bounced the Airbus A320 during a hard landing. It was a short field carved into a hillside on the […]