Tag: pilot stories

Day three of our trip dawned in Kansas City, Missouri, with a beautiful golden glow. As we pushed back, the colors popped on the various tails parked down the row of gates, and we sat in line for takeoff with the...

on march 17, 2023, at 11:37 a.m. CDT, a Beech Baron lifted off from Runway 35 at Lubbock Executive Airpark in Texas (F82). By 11:40 a.m. it had crashed in a fallow cotton field half a mile from the airport and...

As we climbed into the practice area, I wiggled the wings a little, still mesmerized at how much power lay at my fingertips. Even at 60 knots over VY, we were still climbing at a rate that would shock the private...

a picture is worth a thousand words, they say. But a recent crash shows you shouldn’t always trust a picture, even if it’s a compelling next-generation digital color presentation. The pilot had planned a day trip for himself and two passengers...

July means Oshkosh—the time for that substantial trip in the RV-9A from Savannah, Georgia, to Wisconsin, with stops to and from. This was another satisfying trip, full of ADM, IMSAFE, and trade-offs—and weather. The plane was well-loaded with all kinds of...

The green thumb gene must have skipped a generation, because I’d have trouble keeping a cactus alive, let alone a green field of soybeans. Many farmers would likely be in the same predicament if they didn’t use the services of ag...

In the 1930s, pioneering English aviator Alfred “Lamp” Lamplugh penned the following profound words that we should review occasionally. “Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any...

The pilot took his first lesson one month before the accident. Flying several times a week, he’d accumulated 44 hours of experience, about seven of those solo. On May 25, 2021, he planned a multistop, solo cross-country around the Tennessee countryside....

Waiting in a desert canyon outside Las Vegas, photographers stood ready to capture the adrenaline rush of high-speed, low-level aerobatics. Instead, they became eyewitnesses to a fatal crash. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its final report on the...

Being a pilot has been a life goal since childhood, but my primary career for 42 enjoyable years was as a U.S. and international secondary-level teacher, primarily of French. While a junior and senior at the University of Northern Colorado in...