I Learned About Flying From That Archives | Page 11 of 15

I Learned About Flying From That: A Fast Tour of O’Hare

I bought a Cessna 340 several years ago for business and personal use. It was my first pressurized aircraft, so my insurance carrier was quick to point out that despite hundreds of hours of multiengine time, I needed not only a high-altitude endorsement but also formal schooling on the aircraft before it would cover me […]

I Learned About Flying From That: Take Some Home for Mom

Burr’s Berry Farm is well known for its famous strawberry milkshakes. Tourists and locals line up around the small berry stand where Mrs. Burr keeps the tradition of the farm alive. In back of the stand are rows of hydroponically grown strawberry plants elevated so that customers can pick their own strawberries without even having […]

I Learned About Flying From That: My First Solo and My First Loop

The date was Dec. 23, 1943 — I was 21 years old. I was in the rear cockpit of a Fairchild PT-19 primary trainer with a total dual time to date of 10 hours. My instructor was in the front cockpit. The wide-open grass landing strip of Cimarron Field Primary Flight School in Oklahoma was […]

I Learned About Flying From That: Three Laws

I encountered a minor problem while working on my private pilot ticket: Members of the Des Moines, Iowa, company’s flying club kept crashing their airplanes! In one case, a member got into weather he couldn’t handle in a Tri-Pacer with minimal instruments. So he put her down in a cornfield. He wasn’t hurt, but the […]

I Learned About Flying From That: It Couldn’t Happen to Me

My family has owned a 1931 Buhl Bull Pup single-place, open-cockpit “flying bathtub” since 1969. I was 16 when I won the youngest-pilot award at Merced’s Antique Fly-In in 1970. I’ve been flying this little antique airplane all my life. A few weekends ago, I came as close as you can to rolling it (and […]

I Learned About Flying From That: When an Engine Explodes

A number of years ago, I attended an Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association flight-instructor refresher class as a newly licensed CFI-I. The instructor asked a roomful of about 60 CFIs if anyone had lost an engine and made a forced landing. I have never forgotten that day, when almost half the people in the room […]

I Learned About Flying From That: Back to Basics

“You need more right rudder,” Bill Martin scolded as I sloppily put the Cessna 172 into a climbing right turn. My recollection of P-factor and torque effect, it seemed, had gone the way of the dodo bird. “I guess I’m used to yaw dampers in the jets,” I mumbled. “It’s been 10 years since I’ve […]

I Learned About Flying From That: Seizing Control

I keep my Cherokee at Ramona Airport (KRNM) in Southern California and am actively involved with other pilots there in an organization that offers introductory flights to youngsters through a program called Young Eagles. It is a very worthwhile program that offers kids ages 8 to 17 the opportunity of a free introductory flight along […]

I Learned About Flying From That: Lady Luck

How did I get myself into this position? Here I was in a $6 million helicopter, just minutes from running out of fuel, at night, over the swamps of the Florida panhandle. I was beginning to imagine the headlines that would greet my wife and children. “Sir, we’ve got about 10 minutes of gas,” my […]

I Learned About Flying From That: 18,300 Feet in a Cessna 150

The cloud were building beautifully over the California coast range. I was back from college for the weekend and itching to fly, so I grabbed my camera and hopped into one of the Fresno Sky Riders Club Cessna 150s. It was a 1963 model with the standard Continental O-200 engine, producing 100 galloping horsepower — […]