Leading Edge

I haven’t been the same since I totaled my airplane in Telluride, Colorado, last May. Over the past months in these pages I’ve detailed the fears and anxieties that plague me as I try to get back to being the pilot I once was. Caution that exceeds reasonable risk assessment. Fear that grounds me in […]

I have been a motorcycle road racer for many years. Picture closed circuits and leather suits with knee sliders. The kind of gear that protects you when you lean over and press your knee into the asphalt at triple-digit speeds. I love road racing, and crashing is part of the game. I have done so […]

Look at her. A double amputee fastened to a cart. My N4984M was totaled in a wind-shear incident back in May and has been sitting in a hangar in Greeley, Colorado, patiently awaiting her fate. As you can see, a decision was made. An airplane without wings is utterly helpless. It’s as if the straps […]

In my first column I promised unmitigated honesty, so let’s begin there. Since last writing, a buried detail from the accident has unearthed itself from my memory. The way I told it last month, once I recovered from the near stall-spin there was so little runway left, I simply had to put the airplane down […]

I totaled my airplane on May 27, 2018, at 10:30 in the morning. I was departing Telluride Airport in Colorado. It was a Sunday. She was a V-tail. I loved her. She was fast and strong and easily the most exotic thing I have ever owned. And I killed her. They say it’s better to […]