I started the Fear of Landing blog in 2006. I mainly saw it as a spot to store my notes as I planned flights around the UK. My first posts were all lists of things to do. I didn’t really think it would turn into a serious blog, let alone that it would become a major part of my life. I have posted every Friday for seven years! I still find that amazing.

Meanwhile, because it is always a bit of a rush, some aspects of the blog have become neglected and my task today has been to clean that up.

First of all, I’ve completely restarted the mailing list, which has apparently been somewhat sporadic lately. I’ve created a sexy new mailing list with Mailchimp which will deliver a blog post to your inbox every Friday. The list is run by me, personally, and will not be used for anything other than blog updates.

So, here’s the fun bit:

The first book in the Why Planes Crash series is coming out next month, and I’ll be sending a free copy to one lucky person on the mailing list.

If you signed up for Feedburner previously, you’ll hopefully have found this email in your inbox already. If not, you can sign up right here:

Next Friday, I’ll randomly select a winner and contact you via email. So if you’d like a copy of the ebook, sign up!

I’ve also included a link in the right sidebar for subscribing. One of the things I like about Mailchimp is that it’s fast and easy to use with straight-forward options to sign-up and unsubscribe and that they make a real attempt to protect the readers (that’s you) from spam and unreasonable behaviour.

What I don’t like is that they insist on a physical address for the location of the blog. Needless to say, the address on the mailing list is not where the blog really lives. It lives in the cockpit of a Learjet currently cruising at 35,000 feet. Honest.

I’ve also updated the sidebars. On the left I’ve improved the background information a bit (although I’ve still left my plan to fly to all the islands – I’ve not given up yet!) and on the right I’ve made sure there’s a link to the email list, the RSS Feed and the Fear of Landing Facebook page.

I should mention: if you are on Facebook or Twitter, I’d love to link up. I update both with aviation links that I find interesting during the week and I am always happy to chat.

And just for fun: this video was posted today to /r/aviation and it really made me smile.

Have you ever wondered what airplanes do in the hangar after we leave?

Please let me know if you have any problems with the sign up and I’ll see you next week with more aviation news and a winner!