Category: Miscellaneous –  Page 12

Wonderful Airport Welcomes to Make You Sing

I’m terribly busy drinking mulled wine and making Christmas cookies but luckily Baltic Aviation Academy has risen to the challenge of supplying this week’s post. I hope you enjoy their wonderful collection of airport welcomes as much as I have. Thank you, Aviation, for Bringing the World Together At this time of the year airports…

Read more… 21 Dec 12

A Visit to Blackpool ATC

Visit ATC Day is an annual event coordinated by the Airspace and Safety Initiative in the US, allowing pilots to sign up for tours at Air Traffic Control units around the country. This year, the event was held with events in October and November. I couldn’t make the Prestwick date but I was lucky enough…

Read more… 7 Dec 12

Concorde Crash, Spitfires and KFC all in today’s Aviation News

Today’s good news is that the criminal case against Continental and its mechanic have been dropped. Criminal charges can only hamper air accident investigations, which need to focus on how to avoid issues degenerating into fatal crashes, rather than looking to allocate blame. BBC News – Concorde crash: Continental Airlines killings verdict quashed A French…

Read more… 30 Nov 12

Five Things I Never Knew About Lasers

1 Lasers have many legitimate uses in airspace. Everyone else probably already knew this but with all the press about lasers in cockpits, I wondered whether the US and the UK would end up as a blanket ban on laser beams in (potential) airspace. I wasn’t aware that lasers are regularly used to signal aircraft.…

Read more… 23 Nov 12

From the Archives

I’ve got some new and exciting projects in the pipeline which I can’t wait to share with you. Unfortunately, they are taking a lot of my time — I hope you don’t mind if this week I leave you with a fun story from the archives. If you would like to follow me on Twitter,…

Read more… 31 Aug 12

Landing on the Beach – Destination Barra

One of my Things to Do Before I Die is to fly to every possible island in the British Isles. I have identified 38 islands with usable runways within the geographical British Isles, from Jersey off the coast of France to the icy Faroes, located halfway between Iceland and Norway. Ireland and the Aran Islands…

Read more… 6 Jul 12

Accident Reports

Madness on the Runway at Manchester

The Manchester Airport Group Plc owns and operates three airports: Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands. Manchester Airport is the third busiest airport in Britain. Their website says Manchester Airport…

Mid-air Collision of Wingsuit Flyer and Pilatus PC-6

On the 27th of July 2018, an experienced pilot departed with ten parachutists on board for a routine drop mission. It was the pilot’s fourth flight of the day in…

Demystifying

Training an AI Copilot To Spot Gliders

My friend Maria at Daedalean wrote this article about how they are using AI to help pilots detect gliders. I thought it was fascinating and Daedalean gave me permission to…

The Missing Bolts from Alaska Airlines flight 1282

On the 5th of January 2024, Alaska Airlines flight 1282 had just taken off when it lost a door plug, leaving a gaping hole on the left side of row…

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

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…