Hard to believe another twelve months and fifty-two blog posts have gone past. One of my favourite things to do every year is to go over the statistics and see what the top posts were. I laughed a little bit to see that FAA Approved? is in the top ten again for the fifth year…
Read more… 27 Dec 13
It’s that time of year again and many of us are frantically starting to search for the perfect gift to give. I’m not fond of shopping but I do like browsing online for interesting items for myself. So this year, I thought I’d take advantage of my window-shopping and offer up some ideas for interesting…
Read more… 29 Nov 13
This morning, I wasn’t feeling very awake and thought I’d read through my aviation links and news while I woke up gently. Somehow today, though, the entire world seemed full of WTF… 1) I was reading this report and made it on to the next paragraph before my brain caught up and said Wait, what?…
Read more… 15 Nov 13
Captain Dick Blizzard spent seven years as an aviator in the US Navy and a further 33 years as an airline pilot. I’m thrilled to have the chance to share one of his pieces with you. Non-Stop to Havana! Better to Be Lucky Than Smart by Dick Blizzard The airlines only put enough fuel on…
Read more… 18 Oct 13
I’ve become mildly obsessed with drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) after watching the excellent quadcopter demonstration on Ted. Raffaello D’Andrea: The astounding athletic power of quadcopters In a robot lab at TEDGlobal, Raffaello D’Andrea demos his flying quadcopters: robots that think like athletes, solving physical problems with algorithms that help them learn. In a series of…
Read more… 13 Sep 13
Well, it’s been a busy but exciting week here! First off, I was interviewed by Dave Goodwin for PlaneViz, a brilliant weekly aviation podcast. You can hear Dave and me discuss planes, crashing, Tokyo and TCAS in Why Planes Crash Author Sylvia Wrigley – Ep. 15. Dave: When I read about airplane crashes or incidents…
Read more… 2 Aug 13
Last week, we looked at the sequence of events which led to Flash Airlines flight 604 crashing into the Red Sea a few minutes after take-off. This post assumes you’ve…
On the 3rd of January 2004, Flash Airlines flight 604 crashed into the Red Sea shortly after take-off from Sharm el-Sheikh International in Egypt. The Boeing 737-300 registered in Egypt…
On Monday, two commercial aircraft had a near-miss on the runway at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas. The airport at Austin has two parallel concrete runways which run north-to-south: 18L/36R…
On the 11th of January 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US stopped all departing commercial flights, grounding aircraft all over the US. Hot on the heels of…
About a week ago, Marléne Aviation posted to Twitter in an attempt to find the oldest video footage of a flight. Marléne Aviation is run by a French aviation history…
On the 7th of December 1957, a Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer 1, registration G-AOEO, departed an airstrip at Anshan in Libya for a routine flight to Tripoli-Idris Airport. There were…
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…
I didn’t expect to fall in love with the train. When I planned my trip to Germany, I expected that I would be able to keep up with my normal…