I Learned About Flying From That Archives | Page 13 of 15

I Learned About Flying From That: A Change in Weather

(December 2011) Hutchinson, Minnesota, had been covered in snow, ice and arctic temperatures all winter. A week earlier it had been 24 degrees F below zero. This week brought a 45 degrees F above zero temperature and melting snow. Since the temperature was warm, the moon was full and the stars were out, I decided […]

I Learned About Flying From That: Bringing it Home

(November 2011) In November 1954, having accumulated a bit more than 26 solo hours flying 65 hp Cubs and Aeroncas, and having become an aircraft owner several months before, I was supremely confident in my flying abilities. Nevertheless I deferred to my medical school classmate, Ed, a veteran, older by 10 years than most others […]

I Learned About Flying From That: The End of an Error

(October 2011) We are all familiar with the adage “To err is human.” This means that if you are human, you should accept the fact that from time to time you will make errors. Left unabated, many of these errors will be trivial and the outcomes insignificant. But in the operation of an aircraft, the […]

I Learned About Flying From That: The Caribou Mountain Incident

I had flown west through Merrill Pass on my way from Anchorage, Alaska, to the Stony River country and needed to set up a tent camp on one of the small gravel bars along the Swift River, a tributary of the larger Stony. The camp would be used during an upcoming trophy moose hunt for […]

I Learned About Flying From That: My First Multiengine Lesson

Cost is definitely a factor when taking flight lessons. But have you ever given any thought to the value of really good flight training that will help keep you from becoming a statistic? My main goal in writing this article is to further aviation safety by addressing the poor standards I used in selecting a […]

I Learned About Flying From That: Communication Breakdown

__The 2004 fourth of July fell on a Sunday, so I had the added benefit of a Monday off from work. My wife and I had planned our trip to Toledo, Ohio, a couple of weeks earlier to catch up with some old friends. This was a perfect-length trip for a single-engine airplane and one […]

I Learned About Flying From That: What Now, Richard?

(June 2011) For an 80-something-hour pilot, the Sacramento Valley was like a giant flying playpen for me. The foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains border the eastern side while the Coastal Range separates the valley from the Pacific Ocean on the west. The Cascades, including 14,000-foot Mount Shasta, form the northern boundary of the valley. […]

I Learned About Flying From That: A Memorable Day

__My wife’s sister invited my wife and I to spend Memorial Day weekend with her and her husband in Cape May, New Jersey. An early summer visit to the Jersey shore sounded like fun, plus I could fly us there in our Cessna Skyhawk. Our plan was to fly out on Saturday, spend a couple […]

I Learned About Flying From That: The Shortcut

(April 2011) IT WAS NOT A BIG MISTAKE. I ended up with damage only to my pride and my reputation. But, I took a shortcut, and I learned about flying from that. I grew up on World War I flying books left in my bedroom bookcase by previous generations. I listened to Dad tell of […]

I Learned About Flying From That: Another Hudson River Ditching

(March 2011) — THERE WERE TWO HUDSON River accidents in 2009. In January, Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and copilot Jeff Skiles did an excellent job of ditching US Airways Flight 1549. There was also a tragic event in August, when a sightseeing helicopter and a Piper Lance collided and nine people perished. For me, these […]