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I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore…

This trip, I learned how to tie down the plane after the housekeeper at our Bed and Breakfast warned us of an upcoming hurricane. “It’s really a hurricane?” I asked Lynne. “Yes, tail-end of one. Which one is it?” “Gordon,” piped up someone in the corner of the room. “No, not Gordon,” said Lynne. “That…

Read more… 30 Sep 06

Things to Do on St Mary’s

The Isles of Scilly are said to be the most isolated islands in Britain, which I have a hard time believing — in England maybe, but in Britain? It’s a total of 150 islands (five inhabited) but in line with my other destinations, I’m staying on the chunk of land with the airfield on it.…

Read more… 21 Sep 06

Scilly, how long it took…

Finally have confirmed the trip to St Mary’s and the Isles of Scilly for next week. Looking forward to this, especially as I did all the leg-work last month. The flight in looks a bit confusing; I might go a bit of a roundabout route. I was a bit amused by the local online news,…

Read more… 18 Sep 06

And suddenly I’m a reference…

I thought I’d do one last search on “alderney milk” to check for any theories as to where the tradition of Milk-o-Punch came from. Top hit was this site. Ooops. So for the next person who does that search and lands here, let me clarify that it is Milk-o-Punch, not with an “a” as I…

Read more… 4 Sep 06

Just a quick update

Isle of Wight was a lot more interesting than I think anyone expected. I’m not sure when the next trip is (or even where to!) but hopefully before the end of this month.

Read more… 8 Aug 06

Disorganisation

What chaos. Isle of Wight is happening as planned, but when it came to Isles of Scilly, we found a definite reluctance to let rooms for 2 nights during high season, when they could get people staying for a week. So we gave that up and looked at Anglesey instead. Seems there’s a sailing festival…

Read more… 27 Jul 06

Accident Reports

Unravelling the 2010 Widerøe incident at Svolvær

You may remember this 2010 incident from Aviation Herald’s great reporting which led to international attention to the case. I wrote about Aviation Herald’s work on this in: 83ft above…

The Illusion of a Perfect Landing

On the 6th of February 2010, at about half past four in the afternoon, an SAS flight took off from Copenhagen Airport for a short flight to France. Amazingly, everyone…

Demystifying

Descending into Illusion: The Black Hole Effect

With no moon or city lights to guide you, the runway lights up ahead should be a beacon of safety. However, it might be a trap known as the black…

Sharing a Runway: Fed Ex vs Southwest at Austin

On Monday, two commercial aircraft had a near-miss on the runway at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas. The airport at Austin has two parallel concrete runways which run north-to-south: 18L/36R…

History

The Wright brothers and the dream of flying

I’ve lost most of the day to unexpected research and one of the fascinating items that I discovered was the Air Force Historical Research Agency and their amazing photo collection.…

The Tragic Story of Submarine M-200 Myest

On the 21st of November 1956, the M-200 Myest (Месть, meaning vengeance or revenge) collided with a Russian destroyer and sunk to the bottom of the Baltic. The M-200 Myest…

Fun Stuff

A Few Good Stories

I’m in Dresden at the moment and I’m afraid I haven’t had a free moment to write you a new article. Luckily, lots of other people are on the internet…

Flying Fails and Airshow Considerations

Long-term readings of Fear of Landing know that my favourite aerobatics show of all time is Kyle Franklin’s Ben Whabnoski Comedy act. Just in case some of you haven’t seen…