Friday Photo: Santiago, Chile

Santiago, Chile's capital and largest city, has a memorable skyline - not for the buildings, but for the snow-capped Andes that tower over the city. Gaspar Galaz was flying his Piper Archer over the city on a beautiful day when he snapped this photo of the scene. It's this week's Friday Photo.
Cessna 206 on dirt

Don’t EVER do that again

I was loaded with my precious passengers, sitting at the end of the grass, holding the brakes as I brought the power up, airplane shaking and rattling in the classic way of the short field takeoff procedure. The Cessna 206 lurched ahead on brake release and we bounced our way forward. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the fence post marker pass.
Beech Starship

Why the Starship was such a disaster

When one examines a failure of such monumental scale as the Beech Starship program, the inevitable question is, “Why did they do that?” As in almost every instance where things go badly wrong, it was a series of decisions made under shifting circumstances that led to the ultimate disaster.
Clouds in sky

What it takes to be one sharp pilot: pragmatic

Pragmatic. That does sound like a pretty good flying plan for private aviation. I say that because our flying is unscripted and flexible as opposed to, for example, airline flying which is anything but unscripted and flexible and is not always based on practical considerations.

Friday Photo: the view is worth it

Some student pilots have a unique perspective on learning to fly. In this week's Friday photo, Jason Clishe says, "As a student pilot and photographer, views like this are one of the many things that get me excited about aviation."
mountains

Tricycle to taildragger: a 2,000-mile cross country odyssey

With 30 hours of taildragger time in Brian’s logbook and 25 hours in mine, we focused in on an early model 150 hp Decathlon, and in January, found a promising 1975 example for sale. Challenge number one: we live in Surrey and Langley British Columbia, Canada, and the Decathlon was located in Kitchener, Ontario (CYKF), some 2,000 miles as the crow flies.
Taxi diagram

How to nail taxi instructions every time

Have you ever botched taxi instructions? I cannot count how many times I have made this mistake. The most prominent one I can remember was at Seattle (KSEA) in a King Air many years back. I called ground, proceeded to butcher the response call, and, because it's a Class B airport, I advertised to the world I was an amateur.

Friday Photo: San Francisco Christmas flight

How do you celebrate Christmas Day? For Dave Kramer, there's no better way than to go flying. He took this photo from the cockpit of a Citabria, as he cruised over San Francisco Bay on Christmas Day, enjoying the beauty and peacefulness that pilots love so much.
Helicopter Christmas Vietnam

Christmas dinner in Vietnam

Back “in the world” people were sitting down to turkey at grandmother’s house and snow was drifting mistily beyond frosted windows that reflected the flame-shaped bulbs of hanging wreaths. In Vietnam it was hot and humid and sticky as the four Marines sat in the troop seats and looked gratefully at Boyd.
Passengers by gate

Breaking the rules on Christmas Eve

It happened one Christmas Eve, at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, where I was captain of a 777-300. I looked out the front window to see passengers still running towards their gates, bags of Christmas gifts swinging, children struggling to keep up. I could tell from their posture and motion that they were either out of breath or in tears, maybe both.
Fighter in hangar

Silent night at the air base

I can think of a few times where I was on a quiet, I mean really quiet flight line. Once was when I was the commander of an F-4 squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina. In the mid-eighties Seymour was a busy operation - nearly one hundred Phantoms and a squadron of KC-135s were bedded down there.
American 707 freighter

I’ll be home for Christmas – an airline pilot’s story

When I was a new-hire at American, back in 1977, I occupied a position very close to the bottom of the seniority list. Having Christmas off was of no real importance to me, since I was single, unattached, and living in Manhattan, where there is surprisingly little to do on December 25th. So instead I conceived of a plan to surprise my folks with an unannounced Christmas visit.
C-123

Airlift to appreciation: spreading a little Christmas cheer in Vietnam

My C-123 unit had asked for volunteers to fly troops to and from the Bob Hope USO Christmas shows in Bien Hoa those two days. Flying certainly seemed to be a better alternative than spending a lonely Christmas in my room, I reasoned, so I gladly signed up to be scheduled as needed.

Friday Photo: a pink King Air wing

The sun is a talented artist, especially at dawn and dusk. This week's Friday Photo shows how the canvas is often an airplane, not just the surrounding clouds or earth below. Jeff Greer snapped this photo of the King Air he was flying as the sun painted it a beautiful shade of pinkish orange. Another memorable view that's only available in the air.
Super Petrel on beach

A $100 hamburger, the Brazilian way

This sunny morning, I could convince my wife to fly with me to the UNESCO heritage site of Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, a 50-minute flight that would take us along gorgeous tropical coastal scenery. With the help of my friend Siri, a true Caiçara - as the natives of the coast are called - I rolled the Super Petrel in front of the waterline for the pre-flight inspection, which I did by heart.
Cessna 402B

I never considered canceling

Dividing my attention between setting power, keeping her straight and watching my speed, I noticed the windshield starting to mist over with ice but I kept charging. Acceleration was normal and I had a fairly long runway so at 120 I gently rotated the nose - and continued to roll with the mains fully planted.
TBM 900

What’s wrong with single-engine turboprop pilots?

From studying everything that has gone on with the TBM and Meridian and with knowledge of the high performance piston fleet, I get the feeling that the lower fatal accident rate in the turboprops has to be attributable to better training. Better reliability could be a factor and the enhanced performance capabilities of these airplanes may have also made a contribution to safer operation.

Friday Photo: Catalina pokes above the fog

Flying offers some great views - even if you're not the one flying. In this week's Friday Photo, Carlos Gonzalez captures an amazing view of scenic Catalina Island, just off the coast of Southern California. As the marine layer covers the Pacific Ocean, the hilly island sticks up out of the mist, like an aircraft carrier in the clouds.
Cessna takeoff

Solo in every sense of the word

The other day I was cleaning out the drawers in an old dresser and unfolded a green button-down shirt, ruined by having been defaced with a marker and having one tail cut off. Why did I save this thing? I made out some words on the garment that jogged my memory and started my mind to wandering…
Mount Robson

Rocky Mountain rescue

I decided to look down and see where I was geographically. When I looked down, I saw a red flare coming up at me. Well that’s a first. I looked again and a second red flare was shot upwards. I began a circling descent and noticed on this logging road, four individuals with their arms outstretched basically making a “T” sign.