Staying in the books to stay current. Some of us don’t like to read directions. Even for challenging tasks like assembling furniture, a suite of home electronics or the boring sections of an airplane manual. The “us” being mostly us guys. We like to think that we are MacGyver; able to use innovation, ingenuity and Read More
Guppy School (Part Deux) It’s taken 150 hours, but I’m getting a handle on the 737 Guppy (see “Guppy School,” Twin & Turbine, January 2017). It’s rewarding to once again hear “Great landing, great flight” compliments from the passengers and FA’s, the flight attendants. An observer in the cockpit is well suited to gauge piloting Read More
The story of a go-around at one of the nation’s most carefully controlled airspaces: DCA Litany: noun, plural litanies. A prolonged account; a list, catalog, enumeration. On five-mile final, the approach is not working. You’re too fast. The spacing on the plane in front of you is insufficient, you’re not fully configured, you dropped your pen and Read More
It never rains in California, it pours, man it pours. – Albert Hammond, 1973 Proverb: It never rains, but it pours. Misfortunes or difficult situations tend to follow each other in rapid succession or to arrive all at the same time. We sometimes cite proverbs, myths, nursery rhymes, even superstitions in our search for excuses, Read More
Pilot commandments & engine-out SIDs “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.” – Mark Twain Wouldn’t it be nice to have a GPS course for navigating smoothly around life’s obstacles? The database would contain all societal parameters, personal interaction norms and Read More