Category: Miscellaneous – Page 14
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
Flying Dutchman Hoax
This flying like a bird video was released on Monday and swiftly shared around the aviation community. In this two minute video, Janos Smeets shares the success of his 8 month long project to fly with “human bird wings” that he developed based on principles from Leonardo DaVinci. Last August he wrote that he was…
Read more… 23 Mar 12
Top Ten of 2011
If it happens two years in a row, that makes it tradition, right? Last year I put together the ten most popular posts as an end of year wrap-up. I’ve checked the results for 2011 and I’m a little bit surprised that we have only one repeat entry. All the rest were posted this year.…
Read more… 30 Dec 11
Last-Minute Christmas Presents
In the past, I’ve posted ideas for Christmas presents for pilots. But that’s silly. Honestly, pilots are easy to find presents for. We love planes. We love gadgets that attach to our planes. We love books about planes. We love models of planes. We love movies showing planes flying. We love running around the living…
Read more… 23 Dec 11
Sex and Skydiving and the FAA
Last week I posted a link on Facebook about a “sex diving incident” which had the FAA investigating two skydivers after a sexually explicit video was passed around at a local high school, showing a couple having sex in a small plane and continuing through a skydive. Since then I’ve done a little more research…
Read more… 4 Nov 11
File a Flight Plan Day (made easy)
For pilots here in the UK, the Airspace & Safety Initiative (ASI) have launched an initiative that might be interesting: ‘File a Flight Plan Day’ to get GA pilots warmed-up for Olympics. A unique, one-day event in November, will aim to get as many GA pilots as possible thinking about flight planning, ahead of next…
Read more… 14 Oct 11
Accident Reports
Any Landing You Can Float Away From: Successful Ditching in the Arctic
On the 29th of July 2024, a light aircraft encountered engine trouble off the coast of Greenland and was forced to ditch in the North Atlantic. The aircraft was a…
Bomber 139's Third Run: What the Investigation Found
In order to follow this analysis, you’ll need to have the details of the flight and the crash from last week’s article about the flight. When we last saw Bomber…
Demystifying
Another quick round of questions and answers
It’s time for another Questions and Answers session. I started this series a few years back, when a reader asked if there was a way to pose aviation questions outside…
Durga Puja Pandal Shows Air India Flight 171 Crash
The following video from a religious festival in West Bengal, India, has caught a lot of social media attention. It shows a detailed representation of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner…
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
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…
Nathan Pyle Strange Worlds
Thank you so much for all the kind words. I don’t quite have the wherewithal to respond to each of you individually but I very much appreciate all of you…
