Last week, I posted a follow-up from this runway excursion at Portland, focusing on the cockpit voice recording which proved that the pilot knew he had only one engine before deciding to take off. This week, Rudy is taking control for the blog to tell us about the time that he took off on one…
Read more… 6 Aug 21
I’m thrilled to have another guest post by our very own Rudy Jakma! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Wine for the Soul by Rudy Jakma You may have heard about the Beaujolais race? The fruity wine from the Beaujolais region in the south of France is sold after a few…
Read more… 1 May 20
I’m pleased to share another post from Rudy and his early flying days during the Nigerian Civil War. All of the photographs were taken by Rudy at the time. It’s fascinating stuff; I hope you enjoy it as much as I have! -Sylvia More from the Lagos Flying Club, 1968 by Rudy Jakma When I…
Read more… 12 Apr 19
I’m so pleased to be able to share with you the second half of Rudy’s story of his first cross-country solo! In part one of my confessions of an old bold pilot, I wrote about my early flying. When you read the rest of the story, you might wonder how I ever became a commercial…
Read more… 1 Feb 19
Rudy Jakma was kind enough to share with me his story of how he got started in aviation, told in two parts. Rudy is known to regulars of the website for his fantastic and helpful comments and discussions on the posts. He never fails to add insight and explanations based on his long and varied…
Read more… 25 Jan 19
In response to popular demand, here is a guest post from Rudy Jakma. Rudy is a rare breed: an old, bold pilot who is still here to tell the tale. I asked him for some personal details to write a quick introduction and his response was too good to cut down. I’ve added it at…
Read more… 2 Mar 18
Last week, we looked at the key events that led to the Alitalia flight 404 crash. A few points from the previous post: Maintenance replaced both radio receivers in the…
On the 14th of November 1990, Alitalia flight AZ404 crashed into high ground upon approach to Zürich. The accident was investigated by the Federal Aircraft Accidents Inquiry Board in Switzerland…
A reader contacted me to ask about a missing flight 404; they had heard on a trivia podcast that the original computer error message 404 was based on two flights…
On the 25th of February 2022, Plane & Pilot magazine shared a video of the “Ghost of Kyiv” overflying Kyiv in a Ukrainian MiG-29. An unnamed Ukrainian fighter pilot shot…
When I first saw this image, I assumed it was result of modern image manipulations, maybe even the poster for a film. It was too perfect and too modern to…
On the 28th of November 1979, a sight-seeing flight to Antartica crashed into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 on board. The Mount Erebus Disaster, as it came to be known,…
I’ve been struggling this week and was just panicking that I would not have a post finished in time for you for today when I discovered that Reddit had saved…
There’s so much great aviation writing and video out there and I’m always appreciative when people send me fun things; it seems a shame not to share them! So here’s…