Strasbourg has two airfields serving the city: Entzheim (LFST) and Neuhof (LFGC). Neuhof (LFGC) is much more convenient for the city but has a number of restrictions. It is not a customs airfield. There is no air traffic control and the radio is in French. The runway is 819 metres of grass. I didn’t get…
Read more… 3 Oct 08
Aviation Video: F-16 Dead Stick Landing The most amazing thing I’ve seen this week was via Jetwhine: this amazing video of an F-16 landing dead stick with an engine out.Jetwhine writes: For those of you who may not be familiar with a Head Up Display used in the F-16, the pilot essentially views the information…
Read more… 27 Sep 08
Cliff taxied the plane over to the pumps and I hopped out to get us some fuel. “I’ll get out in a moment,” Cliff said. “I just want to put our route into the GPS first.” “No problem.” I walked over to the tiny booth behind the pumps and tapped at the door. A pale…
Read more… 19 Sep 08
We arrived home yesterday after a lovely trip getting caught up with everyone. We went to England to drop Connor off at school (*sniffle*) and to see Cliff’s mum then on to Strasbourg to check out Tony’s new digs, from there a quick jaunt to Mannheim to visit with my grandmother and then last night…
Read more… 13 Sep 08
The following morning, we left our hotel to do some exploring. Our hotel was in Hugh Town, known locally as just the Town. ‘The Town’ has a feeling unlike any other part of Scilly – built-up and almost urbanised. But there is usually a friendly feel to the place with people stopping in the street…
Read more… 5 Sep 08
I took my time arranging the next island trip. After arriving home from the Channel Islands, Anne had suffered a heart attack. I felt guilty at my immediate reaction: thank God it didn’t happen in the plane! I knew she was feeling better when she started nagging me about our next trip. Which island and…
Read more… 29 Aug 08
Why KLM Cut the Steering Cables on Two Perfectly Functional Boeing 737s
Last month, we looked at the night of 28th of November 2004 at Barcelona Airport. KLM 1673 ran off the runway at high speed, stopping just short of a canal.…
KLM 1673 Veers Off the Runway with Full Right Rudder
On the 28th of November 2004, a Boeing B737 ran off the runway at Barcelona Airport. The weather had been good at Barcelona that evening. The flight crew agreed to land…
How Important is Having a Sterile Cockpit?
This question was posted to r/flying by a private pilot who wanted to know: do airline pilots ever engage in small talk about irrelevant things during taxiing, run-up, takeoff, and…
Someone has to write the TAF
It turns out that there a person sitting there deciding what the weather is going to do. Which seems obvious, except that I had somehow never asked msyelf who “someone”…
The CIA's Shark Screen
Today we have a guest post from the CIA! In their archives, researching something completely different, I found the answer to a question I never thought to ask. I immediately…
The First Jet to Land on an Aircraft Carrier (Deliberately)
“The Vampire was the first jet to land on a moving aircraft carrier deliberately.” This quote from Airshow Luke, our MC at the Legacy of Liberty airshow, made me almost…
Petrified, Petrified, Petrified
There’s been some interesting reporting in the UK media about a “near disaster” over Canary Wharf involving the captain having to intervene (the horror!) after air data systems failed on…
Aviation Stories You Might Have Missed
I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season. This week, I’ve put together a compilation of interesting items in the press that you might have missed while enjoying…