Voices Of Flying

I logged in to OpenAI.com and asked to speak to ChatGPT. It presented me with a box where I could insert a question. I began with the most basic of all aeronautical questions: How does a wing produce lift?

In my travels, I did stumble onto another memory: a house between Mooreland and Millville, Indiana, with a sign indicating it as the birthplace of Wilbur Wright before the bishop and his family moved to Dayton, Ohio.

I asked readers to share their own ‘gift of flight’ stories. Here is a trio of them.

A short flight generates sobering thoughts on insurance, eyesight, and avgas.

When Dawn and I bought our previous airplane, a 1953 Piper Pacer, we vowed to fly it at least ten hours a month, and indeed we clocked some 220 hours over 18 months of ownership. This time around, I’ve only flown our Stinson 40 hours since buying it in August.

The challenge of getting quality multiengine time is a theme throughout the development of a professional pilot’s career.

The NTSB links a potentially preventable Cessna 337 Skymaster accident in remote Alaska to an inadvertent stall.

On this day of giving thanks, and as I get older, I know what I am grateful for as a pilot.

There is something about human flight that first pushes back against then unchains our imaginations. I’m now the one in that airplane, sitting in the left seat, flying into the sunset.

In a long and storied career, Clay Lacy has notched extraordinary experiences in commercial and business aviation, the military, and air racing.