The Isles of Scilly (the locals frown upon the phrase “the Scilly Isles” for reasons that I don’t really understand) are an archipelago of 150 islands off of the Cornish coast. St Mary’s, the largest of the islands, is home to Hugh Town, the thriving centre of the Scillies, with an airport and a working…
Read more… 1 Aug 08
Plastic Pilot has been planning a trip to Guernsey and I couldn’t help but remember my first flight there. This was also Anne’s first time flying with me. Here is the description I wrote at the time: It seemed such a good idea. My pilot’s licence was burning a hole in my pocket and I…
Read more… 18 Jul 08
One of the common routes that we fly is between South-east England, where we both have friends and family to Málaga, near our home here on the South Coast of Spain. We have it down to a fine art as we’ve done the run so often, the planning almost takes care of itself. We generally…
Read more… 11 Jul 08
To prepare for our trip to Switzerland, I flew with the Saratoga to Andrewsfield, a small airfield near Stansted in Essex that I’d not been to before. Andrewsfield was built by the Americans in World War 2 and is one of the few airfields around London which will allow for unlimited circuits – as long…
Read more… 7 Jun 08
“Head towards the mosque,” seems to be the start of all directions in Marrakesh. Even if you don’t ask for directions, they point you that way, telling you that you should go to the square. The Koutoubia mosque and the Djemaa el Fna square are the centre of the world. During the day, the centre…
Read more… 12 Apr 08
Just a quick update to say we had a wonderful time at Birling Gap – my mother and my son both loved it, much to my relief. The weather was IFR (in fact, we arrived a day later than initially planned to wait out a storm) but the South Downs still look beautiful in rain…
Read more… 23 Mar 08
On the 4th of June 2022, a Bell 407 GXP helicopter crashed in a field near Fairfield, New Jersey. I wrote about it at the time. The final report and…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…