Category: Miscellaneous –  Page 14

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

The Route to an Aviation Career.

This guest post is from Stephanie of Hillsboro Aviation in Oregon, who was kind enough answer my questions about how to start an aviation career. I hope my son is reading this! The Route to an Aviation Career The route to becoming an employable commercial pilot is not necessarily easy. Is it worth it? That…

Read more… 2 Sep 11

Destination: Swansea

I’ve been bursting to tell you all about this for weeks. We’re moving to South Wales! We’ve taken a gorgeous flat right on the Marina and we’ll be splitting our time between Swansea and the Costa del Sol. I’m really looking forward to this (despite all the dire weather predictions) and I hope to share…

Read more… 24 Jun 11

Southbridge Tornado

On the 1st of June, a tornado touched down in Southbridge in the late afternoon. It left a 39-mile path of damage behind it, the second longest track in Massachusetts’ history. Tornado – Wikipedia There are several different scales for rating the strength of tornadoes. The Fujita scale rates tornadoes by damage caused, and has…

Read more… 10 Jun 11

Places to Go, People to See

I’m going to be spending more time in England and Wales over the summer. I’m looking forward to it: I tend to commute back and forth which means I tend to only see places where I have a meeting. I haven’t had much chance to wander around and see things just because I want to…

Read more… 3 Jun 11

Accident Reports

Following the story of the Fokker F27

Last week I wrote about the Fokker F27 mk 500 Friendship that came off the runway at take-off at Bournemouth Airport. Rudy commented on his experience flying the F27 in…

Pneumatic Pressure Required

The flight crew reported for duty at Bournemouth Airport at 3am on Friday the 7th of May 2004. They were flying a thirty-three-year-old Fokker F27 Mark 500, registered in the…

Demystifying

How to tell a Russian Su-27 from a British Typhoon

This is not an article that I ever thought I would feel compelled to write! However, given the confusion over a photograph chosen in a regional English paper, apparently it’s…

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…

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

Flights of Fantasy: Aviation April Fools Worth Celebrating

I’m going to admit that I’m not a great fan of April Fools’ pranks, especially not attempts to trick people into believing something and then pulling the rug out from…

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…