Early flight sim

A personal progression through flight sims

Bruce Artwick, a computer graphics guy, along with marketing student and pilot, Stu Moment, formed a company named SubLogic to sell their home-grown computer games. With their program a person could fly a simulated aircraft over a five-square-mile grid of primitive wire-frame graphics. It was outstanding!

Friday Photo: Salinas sunset

Sunsets from the air are almost always memorable, but add in the right cloud layer and the view becomes magical. That's what Jim Hopp captures in this Friday Photo. As he broke out of the clouds on an Angel Flight, he was greeted with the perfect view.
F-4

It wasn’t a fly-by

The day came for the Change of Command. The reviewing stands were close to the flight line, distinguished guests were greeted and escorted to their reserved positions at the review area. Suddenly there was noise in the flight line area. Quiet hours were in force for 30 minutes before the ceremony until 30 minutes past. What the heck?
Buyer in airplane

Selling my airplane after 40 years

It was time to sell my plane. My 90th birthday was approaching and I was having mobility problems due to spinal stenosis that were only partially corrected by surgery. I had bought my Mooney 231 in 1981. My wife and I had traded in my Arrow and her Cherokee to move up a level. We added more avionics and an engine along the way during the 39 years we owned the bird.

Go or No Go: Cirrus vs. southern storms

You had hoped to get away earlier today, but business meetings have a way of running long and that's exactly what happened. As a result, your proposed flight will depart Nashville, Tennessee (JWN), at 3pm local, for a two hour and 30 minute flight to Shreveport, Louisiana (DTN). Read the weather briefing below, then tell us if you would make the flight or cancel.
Crash scene

Witness to an airplane crash

The BT squatted in a three-point landing about 500 ft. from the end of the runway. As it rolled it seemed to be doing that walk to the left that every taildragger pilot has experienced in a crosswind. At about the 1000-foot marker the left wheel eased off the side of the runway. My mind perked up. “This is going to be interesting,” I said to myself.

Friday Photo: a perfect picture over Nebraska

Instrument proficiency flights don't have to be boring, as Dave Johnson discovered on this flight. He was knocking the rust off in his Bonanza when he snapped this gorgeous photo of the sun lighting up a high cloud layer.
Stearman

An overconfident ferry pilot flies a Stearman to Oshkosh

I was building flying time by ferrying airplanes on weekends but this was one sorry looking airplane. Originally a proud training plane for the military prior to World War II, it had become a crop duster. The fabric was ripped in numerous places and the interior was sparse. To make sure I could make it to Oshkosh, and a possible new owner I applied duct tape to each rip I found in the fabric. It probably took 20 ft. of duct tape.
Light rain

The right pilot mindset: realistic, not conservative

You’ve heard the cliche: flying isn’t dangerous, it’s just unforgiving. The unforgiving nature of aviation has serious consequences, which we should remember every time we sit in the left seat. The stakes are simply higher than in almost any other part of life, so our day-to-day risk management tools are not enough.
SeaRey cockpit

Life in an airplane, on and off the water

The SeaRey is a fun plane to fly and very well mannered on the water and in the air. You do have to be prepared for pitch changes with different power settings, with the high thrust line of the Rotax pusher engine. On terra firma, landings and takeoffs are typical tailwheel operation and it can be exciting at times.
Sunset

Approach, I need the nearest airport

After passing by Fort Pierce (FPR), we experienced a large loss of power and severe vibrations from the engine. Soon after came a petroleum-based smell. Oil? I looked and saw no engine indications of excessive oil temperature, pressure, or exhaust gas. I set the mixture for full rich and took the airplane over from the student. “My controls,” I stated.

Friday Photo: granddaughter’s first flight

Grandkids and airplanes are a lot of fun. Put them together and great things can happen, as Mark Fay found out in this picture. As he says about flying his first granddaughter on her first flight in his Cessna 182RG: "Every reason I became a pilot came to life over these two days."
Snow on runway

A thirty year mystery solved—icy runways and crosswinds

I lined up with runway 18 as I had often done in the past, only to find that I had little to no control deflection remaining (full left aileron and full right rudder) with strong winds gusting out of 270 degrees. With a full cabin of customer-passengers in the other five seats coming for a two-day factory visit and tour, my macho, risk-tainted bravado at that time told me to press on with landing—which of course I did.
Islander

An Easter miracle in the Canadian Arctic

In 1981, I was living in Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories, which is north of the 60th parallel, working as a new bush pilot. I was flying south to a very small community on Trout Lake on Easter Sunday. The flight service lady informed me that they were still looking for a twin engine pilot who went missing on Good Friday. Being religious, she was convinced that he would be found today, on Easter Sunday, and that I needed to look for him.
DC-3 engine

Diagnosing an engine failure by sound

In the summer of 1987, I watched a DC-3 take off from a paved runway south of Atlanta, where I was working to add fuel and oil to airplanes. I heard an inrush of air as a “waa – waa” sound. This was recurring at a noticeable but slowing rate. I interpreted this slowing repetition as an engine inlet manifold splitting open behind a supercharger.
Cessna flare

Smooth operator: sometimes you can go too far

How smooth is too smooth? And how to achieve that? Before we start the never-ending discussion about super butter/greased touchdowns, an essential disclaimer right from Boeing’s Flight Crew Training Manual: “A smooth touchdown is not the criterion for a safe landing.”

Friday Photo: Texas sunset

Greg Pepper was returning to Houston from Dallas after introducing an aspiring pilot and brother to his Cirrus SR22 when he took this photo. "During a very quiet and uneventful trip home, I was awestruck by the beauty of this late fall Texas sunset." So are we.
Mountains

Breaking my own “rules to fly by”

My passenger-side wing was pointed straight down at the mountainous terrain below us and, seated behind me, my good friend and her six-month pregnant daughter gasped in sheer terror. Just a moment before, we had been cruising in CAVU conditions while meandering along the windward ridgeline of the Presidential Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. How did I find myself in this predicament?
T-33

Hang on young man: fighting an invisible enemy in a T-33

The cabin pressure was way above where it was supposed to be and I was starting to feel a bit dizzy so I turned my oxygen regulator to 100%. As I flew on the dizziness increased, my fingers were white, and my nails starting to turn blue—signs of anoxia—so I turned the oxygen regulator to emergency in which mode it actually forced oxygen into my lungs.
Rope

The day my glider checkride almost went bad

Based on past checkrides, it had become the expectation that the rope break would occur on the second flight. But as we turned crosswind on the last flight, he still hadn’t released the rope. I started thinking he must be going easy on me and maybe I started to relax a little—when WHAM he released the tow rope!