In February, 2014, my schedule included a reposition flight on Taipei-based carrier EVA Air. EVA has a strong presence in Asia. Their passenger and cargo jets can be spotted at major cities worldwide. My first officer […]
or Who (or what) is flying this thing, anyway? There has been a lot of talk in the media lately about aircraft automation. Apparently, The Machines are doing the flying and the pilots are sitting around […]
Schedules, being the complicated animals they are, sometimes require pilots to fly as passengers to get into position for their next flight assignment. I had the opportunity to fly Singapore Airlines Business Class from Hong […]
“Ladies and Gentlemen, In the unlikely event of a loss of cabin pressure, the pilots have really cool quick-donning, pressure demand oxygen masks. You, on the other hand, have a yellow Dixie cup with an […]
I was sitting in The Chair as the dentist poked and scraped my freshly cleaned teeth. He was commenting about his upcoming Southwest Airlines flight to Phoenix… Dr. S: Ken, my flight from Louisville to Phoenix […]
I recently stumbled on a website that preaches the evils of Gas Guzzling Airliners. The site’s curator is particularly agitated with Boeing’s new 747-8 and the Airbus A380. “These huge, four engine gas guzzlers are […]
Modern jets go fast. Typical cruise speeds are close to the speed of sound. Did you realize you were moving that fast? As inevitable as a Black Friday WalMart riot, at the end of every flight […]
When I was a kid, my dad took a small, transistor AM/FM radio, cracked it open and tinkered with the FM tuning coil. Within a couple of minutes, he turned it into an aviation-band receiver. […]
Take a large, spinning, spheroid object with an atmosphere (like the earth), add some heating from a nearby star (like our sun), and the atmosphere of the spheroid will do some some pretty interesting things. […]
Happy De-Ice Season! (It’s winter somewhere) When flying during the cold weather months, passengers often see aircraft being de-iced. Ever wonder why the airline chose to delay your flight to wash their airplane with slimy […]