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Old and New Aviation

New

This week, I have a great collection of articles for you to read, ranging from World War II to A.I. fighter pilots. Surviving War’s End by Werner Schwantje is a great story expanded into Survivor on the Canadian site, Vintage Wings. His name was Werner Schwantje, an elegant, well-turned out 70-something government lawyer with Revenue…

Read more… 21 Jan 22

Cessna 172 Struck by Train

This video of a pilot who has used at least two of his nine lives was released by the Los Angeles Police Department on Monday. Note that if you are reading this on the email list, you may need to click through to the post to watch the videos. Foothill Division Officers displayed heroism and…

Read more… 14 Jan 22

The Sad Story of the Seawind 3000 N8UU

For this post, I’m going to start with the NTSB report of an accident which took place on the 3rd of July 2021 on Lake Michigan. The aircraft was a Seawind 3000, a fixed wing single-engine amphibious aircraft. The defining event is listed as ditching, which seems odd for an amphibious aircraft and the poor…

Read more… 7 Jan 22

The Most Popular Posts of 2021

Last year, I commented that the most popular posts tended to be older ones which I thought was maybe because people had more time to read in lockdown and went back through the archives. But having investigated more, it is clear that it takes some time for posts to peak in popularity. This year is…

Read more… 31 Dec 21

Merry Christmas!

It is Christmas eve and it is snowing and I am lounging around in my pyjamas making mulled wine and braising beef for a special meal for tonight. You mostly know Cliff from his quick fixes to the server, (although he is the one to thank for the design and functionality of this entire website!)…

Read more… 24 Dec 21

Questions and Answers: It’s Your Turn

A Fear of Landing reader asked me a great question in email. Is there some way of asking general technical questions that relate to aircraft or airport operations rather than a specific post. One of your posts discussed runway naming, but I’ve got more questions about this. This particular example could be answered by yourself…

Read more… 17 Dec 21

Accident Reports

Causal Factors of the Piper Malibu Crash near Guernsey

Sometimes it seems like these posts get longer every year that I keep doing this. This collection of details from the AAIB report that I left out of the Piper…

Piper Malibu Loss of Control Over the Channel

On the 21st of January 2019, a Piper Malibu crashed into the English Channel near the island of Guernsey, killing both the pilot and the passenger on impact. Technically, this…

Demystifying

Wings for Wildlife: Aviation at Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, founded in 1977, is a charity focused on the conservation, preservation and protection of wildlife and habitats in Kenya. Their well-written newsletters are always a joy…

Maintaining Focus in the Cockpit

This article by Key Dismukes, Grant Young and Robert Sumwait is based on their research at NASA to study the problem of crew preoccupation. They reviewed NTSB reports of accidents…

History

The Mount Erebus Disaster

On the 28th of November 1979, a sight-seeing flight to Antartica crashed into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 on board. The Mount Erebus Disaster, as it came to be known,…

An Icon of Aviation

I have a guest post this week by Nicholas Brown, the Campus President of Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology. The college has been rebuilding a replica of Little Stinker,…

Fun Stuff

Funniest Thing You've Heard On the Radio

I’ve been struggling this week and was just panicking that I would not have a post finished in time for you for today when I discovered that Reddit had saved…

A Little Bit of Everything

There’s so much great aviation writing and video out there and I’m always appreciative when people send me fun things; it seems a shame not to share them! So here’s…