I Learned About Flying From That Archives | Page 14 of 15

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 […]

I Learned About Flying From That: Things NOT to Do in an Airplane

(February 2011) — The call I was looking for came through in mid-May, offering me a gig as a stage manager at a big summer stock theater in Dayton, Ohio. This would get me out of the summer heat in Miami and would be a step up from the theater at which I was working. […]

I Learned About Flying From That: A Break in the Chain

(January 2011) — It was my good friend Paul’s second airplane ride. The airplane was a bright red Grumman AA-1 Yankee, my favorite of all the ones owned by the Orlando Aero Club at the time. Quick and responsive, it was my kind of airplane. On this particular flight, we were flying out of Page […]

I Learned About Flying From That: A Freight Dog’s Christmas

Christmas Eve 2002 should have been a happy time. It was my first Christmas with my new wife in our new home in Miami. I was a commercial pilot for a small, domestic freight airline. Pilots who do this type of flying are referred to as “freight dogs” because sometimes a day for us can […]

I Learned About Flying From That: A Real Lear Engine Out

It was a wintry day in Salt Lake City with the temperature hovering around freezing and a high, overcast sky with good visibility. We were on the second leg of a three-leg day flying a Lear 35 from a military base to Washington, D.C., carrying three passengers including a VIP. I was sitting right seat […]

I Learned About Flying From That: The Valley of Life

The event happened in the middle of March, when the weather consists of winter storms and unsettled conditions. Weather, the nemesis for all pilots, almost became the leading contributor to what should have been the last day of my life. I lived in Salt Lake City at the time, and I was just about to […]

I Learned About Flying From That: Maintain Control

When I became a first lieutenant aircraft commander in the B-47 Strato-Jet, the most beautiful airplane ever built, I had many lessons to be learned. As to emergency situations, our instructors always advised us to maintain control of the airplane and then handle the emergency. I, however, had another type of control to learn. In […]

I Learned About Flying From That: Lessons Learned

The simple logbook entry read “installed rectifier in alternator test circuit, flight tested OK.” We’d had a problem with our alternator-out light that was corrected on a Monday prior to a flight planned for Saturday. The briefer was right; we arrived at our hangar at Lee Gilmer Memorial (GVL) in Gainesville, Georgia, with less than […]

I Learned About Flying From That: Hands-Off Spin Recovery

JUNE 2010 — THE SKY WAS CLOUDLESS and the air crisp as I drove to the Ann Arbor, Michigan, airport on a glorious spring morning. I’d flown almost 30 hours as a student pilot and had no idea I was about to experience my first spin while flying alone in my flight school’s aged Cessna […]