Category: Flying –  Page 4

Travel Photographs

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

After Dark

Flying always feels different after sunset. Isolated, elsewhere, in orbit instead of just above. My world becomes the plane and the plane is the entire world. Cities and farmland and lakes and railway lines, they are real. But the twinkly lights below me, the reflection of a desert sky, I find it difficult to believe…

Read more… 16 Jun 08

Photographs of Lausanne

I’ve come down with some sort of horrific flu and really not up to writing a word – but I wanted to start posting, especially as I know Plastic Pilot is waiting to see how Lausanne is faring without him. As you can see, it was a bit cloudy over the Swiss Alps on our…

Read more… 30 May 08

Destination: Shoreham

Shoreham Airport is one of my favourite airfields with a convenient location and easily spotted from the air, whichever direction you come in from. They have a decently long (1,036 metres) asphalt runway with PAPI but their commercial traffic isn’t very high, so they are still General Aviation friendly and ATC has always been helpful.…

Read more… 23 May 08

Destination: Altenrhein (St Gallen)

Alfons Eigenmann’s description of Altenrhein airfield, as translated by Harald Rauch and edited by Ed Rathje: The Altenrhein airfield was built in the years 1927-1928 by pumping mud from nearby Lake Constance (Bodensee) onto a swampy area close to the shore line. Almost in the middle of this area a turf runway of 600 x…

Read more… 16 May 08

Destination: Lausanne

I don’t know a lot about Lausanne but hopefully that’s about to change. After a bit of a refresher in North Weald, I’ll be braving a border-crossing into Switzerland: flying to Lausanne to meet with some people and hopefully to waste some quality time sitting at the edge of the lake looking at France. My…

Read more… 14 May 08

Accident Reports

The Fenestron Factor: Cabri G2 Crash in Gruyéres

The Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (STSB) has released the final report for the Cabri G2 light helicopter crash in Gruyères, Switzerland in 2022. I wrote about it at the…

Cessna 172M forced landing after go-around in New South Wales

On the 15th of October 2023, a private pilot rented a Cessna 172M from Air Gold Coast for a private flight from Gold Coast Airport, Queensland, to Murwilumbah, New South…

Demystifying

How to tell an F-16 Fighting Falcon from a Eurofighter Typhoon

There are a number of reasons why you might need to quickly point out the differences between a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and a Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon. You might…

Extreme Turbulence in Singapore Airlines flight 321

A few days ago (21st of May 2024), Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 encountered heavy turbulence on a passenger flight from London-Heathrow to Singapore. There were 229 on board, including eighteen…

History

Gladys Ingle Inflight Wheel Change: Emergency Action or Stunt?

This video of a mid-air wheel exchange goes viral once a year or so, but I never get tired of watching it. Last week, it showed up on Reddit and…

The Disappearance of the Hawaii Clipper May Not Be as Mysterious as Was Thought

This week, we have a guest post by J.B. Rivard who wrote an article for the American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS) and used one of my articles as a reference.…

Fun Stuff

Terminally Early: The Berlin Viewing Platform

Mistakes were made. All of them were mine. Before I left for Dresden, I planned out my full itinerary. Berlin is a much busier airport than Tallinn, so I needed…

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…