Pilot Proficiency

In July 1999, we departed Norfolk, Virginia (KORF) and headed northeast out over the Chesapeake Bay. It was a hazy day. The sky and the water were the same washed-out blue gray; there was no discernible horizon. I was flying our Cessna 340, my first twin. I’m guessing by that time I had about 2,500 […]

The sun is shining and the fish are calling, but it’s online catch-up day on Windbird. We spent the past week at beautiful, isolated Conception Island, Bahamas: No people, no internet — it was heaven on earth. The news headlines that greeted Dawn and me upon our return made us wish we’d stayed a little […]

1. Satcom Satellite communication system — Aeronautical mobile satellite service developed as a primary communications link for remote areas and oceanic airspace. Satcom supports voice and data transmissions but is sometimes prone to long transfer delays. 2. ACARS Airborne communications addressing and reporting system — Air/ground datalink is the standard for ACARS, which has been […]

Sitting just a few miles north of the Tennessee-Georgia state line, Chattanooga’s Lovell Field (CHA) saw nearly 60,000 takeoffs and landings last year, with the Tracon workload hovering near 90,000 aircraft, nearly 50,000 of which operated into the airport on an IFR flight plan. Chattanooga’s airport elevation is less than 1,000 feet, but a glance […]

A northeast wind is picking up. Two red-tailed hawks are circling above this ridge, rising higher and higher, sliding fast when they turn southward but seeming to hover in place when they face north. Each surge and billow lifts them higher. They must soar for pleasure; they’re so far up now, no likely prey would […]

One of the things I love about living and cruising aboard Windbird is the way it drastically simplifies and slows the frenetic pace of modern life. Where most of my flights are of a few hours’ duration, passages under sail are measured in days and weeks. Three hours on watch, three hours off, ad infinitum […]

There was nobody to marshal us in as we wheeled into the parking spot. After we shut the old Navajo down and started looking around to see where to go after we got out, a man ran up to the pilot side of the airplane. I opened the little side window and expectantly bent an […]

The visual of large blue and green aluminum fragments floating in the ice-laden Potomac River as we descended on our approach into Washington National Airport is still vivid enough to remain locked in my memory. The evening prior, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737-200, had crashed into the 14th Street Bridge just after takeoff […]

No matter how rewarding and clean and bright it feels to say, “I’m going for it,” there is always a nagging doubt that maybe, just maybe, this is nuts. So it has been for me since my wife and I bought the airplane of my 50 years of flying dreams, a Beech Premier 1. Fast […]

An aircraft auxiliary power unit serves as an additional energy source normally used to start one of the main engines on an airliner or business jet. The APU is equipped with an extra electrical generator to create enough power to operate onboard lighting, galley electrics and cockpit avionics, usually while the aircraft is parked at […]