Gear Up

It’s been said that there is no such thing as a perfect flight. I know I’ve never come close. On most flights I can admit to some minor imperfection even before engine start. Though I’d like to think that none of these common omissions or out of sequence commissions are dangerous, I can think of […]

The flight lasted all of 11 minutes. It is hard to imagine how such a short leg could be of such rapture, but it was. Credit must be given to the days that preceded the flight, because they hold the key to the distilled delight and might explain the hyperbole. Tampa, Florida, to Lakeland, Florida, […]

Read Let’s Try This Again to follow the full story. We’re all set, then. We’ve agreed on a price, the airplane has undergone multiple inspections  at Stevens Aviation in Nashville, Tennessee, and the title is clear. I have sent the remaining impressive dollar amount to the escrow people. I’ve asked Eric Engstrom, who’s actually been […]

It is said that a second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience. The same might be said of a second attempt at buying a jet just a few months after having suffered a painful breakup. Things are surely different the second time around. My first jet-buying experience was mostly characterized by lust. I […]

The old man was seduced. There is no other way to put it. He was intrigued at first, then tempted, then smitten, and finally, all in. Against all rational thought, he was totally taken by the sexy 18-year-old. That old man was me. “She” was a 2000 Beechcraft Premier 1. In these days of carefulness […]

Around here, we call it the “trip of a lifetime,” though that hardly does it justice. You might remember last month’s column that left off at an improbably tasty restaurant in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, after just the first day of a 23-day private jet tour of Europe. Air Journey organized the trip, and it featured three […]

What would you call a trip to Quebec City; Bluie West Eight, Greenland; Reykjavik, Iceland; Stravanger, Norway; Amsterdam; Cannes on the French Riviera; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Salzburg, Austria; Lucerne, Switzerland; Tallinn, Estonia; Stockholm; and Edinburgh, Scotland? A trip of a lifetime? What if it were in a private jet? How about if you were the copilot, […]

As we taxied in, Roland, whom I’ve known for 35 years, marshaled us slowly, almost solemnly, with a look of anguish on his countenance. It was immediately clear that things were worse than I thought. He pointed his orange wand at the right wing and shook his head. I knew we had hit a bird. […]

Not just anybody can join this group. We’ve been meeting for close to 30 years, and we guard admission with diligence. To become a member, you must be a man who looks good on paper, but be a bit of a mess in real life. Turns out, there are a lot of us. In the […]

OK, I’ve whined enough about the new jet. I’ve moaned about the speedbrake-spoiler failure that occurs every time I get above Flight Level 300; about the fact that I will have to pay Williams for 150 hours per year on the engine program even though I won’t fly that much; about the ridiculous wait to […]