Category: Miscellaneous – Page 15
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
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
Accident Analysis
Ferry Tank Failure: Successful SR22 Ditching in the Pacific
In 2015, I shared a video of an SR22 whose pilot successfully deployed his Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) off of the coast of Maui, Hawai’i. I wrote at the time…
The Man in the Right Seat at Prestwick
On the 23rd of April 2024, a Piper Archer II crashed in South Ayrshire, Scotland, after losing power. There were two on board. Both suffered serious injuries and the light…
Demystifying
The Pilots, the Probes, and the AF447 Verdict
On the 21st of May 2026, the Paris Court of Appeal convicted Airbus and Air France of involuntary manslaughter for their roles in the crash of Air France flight 447,…
Meowing on Guard (an attempt at an explanation)
Last week a video went viral and it’s been fun to see the mainstream media coverage try to cover two pilots who were heard making animal noises on the radio. …
History
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…
Four Point Two Stars Where You Only Stop If You Have To
I always look up airports when I’m writing about them, partly out of habit and partly because I’m afraid I’ll miss an important detail. When I was writing Any Landing…
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…
