A Winter Flight That Sparked a Family Legacy in Aviation

It seems to me there are almost limitless ways to learn about flying, and not all fall under one or more of the above adjectives; yet those lessons are there, and they are free for the taking. In fact, some happened even before we held a license to do the deed ourselves, or for that matter even before we might have considered it.

Buffalo Hunting With Airplanes

The most likely threat I would face was 23MM and 37MM Triple-A, which would be fired in streams of 25-50 rounds at a time. If the gunners were harassing you, they might fire only 25 rounds. If they were intent on you not destroying something of value (like themselves!), you could expect hundreds of rounds to be fired at you.

2025 Richard Collins Writing Prize Runner-Up: Tailstrikes and Tiedowns

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As I banked into my final approach, my heart sank. I had fully cut power and had flaps at twenty, but I was still far too high. Because I had let my airspeed get so low, I hadn’t lost enough altitude on downwind. I knew I should go-around, but panic gripped me. I did the worst thing possible and tried to lose altitude by steepening my approach.

Teaching International Student Pilots

After busting a major milestone in their training (the initial solo or any of the three checkrides they had to pass in the T-38 syllabus), students would get one or two extra flights with an experienced IP.  They would then fly an “Initial Progress” check with a squadron supervisor.  If they passed that check, they continued with the program.  Failing the Initial Progress check meant they got additional flights with another experienced IP and then flew a “Final Progress” check.  If they failed that flight, they would be eliminated from the program.

A Great Flying Experience on the Ground

The B-17 is said to be one of the most recognizable warplanes of its era, known to people who can’t identify any other airplane by name. This one came with a bonus, a wartime B -17 pilot who was there promoting a book.

Flying “Low VFR” to the Indy 500

Just as ATC said almost three hours later, the sky opened to a warm bright sunny day, coming out the other side we wanted to land to get fuel. ATC said if you land now that storm you just flew under will be on top of that airport and asked if we could make it another 50 miles to give time to fuel and get back in the air.

Six Brave Souls

I taxied onto Runway 17 (no longer in use), advanced the throttles and asked Audrey to set the maximum takeoff power of 52 inches. At 60 knots, I glanced at the manifold pressure gauges and was shocked to see the right engine at 52, but the left one at only 43 inches!

You Need to Do What at Five Thousand Feet? Another Adventure in Seaplane Flying

ATC turned me loose advising a switch over to UNICOM on 122.8. All was quiet for less than a minute! The Italian, wearing a guest headset, leaned over and seemed to be in sudden distress pointing to his crotch with urgency, “Captain, I have to pee NOW!”

A Night Flying Experience I’ll Never Forget

We were monitoring the tower frequency at Erie, and we could hear a disturbing dialogue. A pilot was lost in the dark, in and out of the clouds. His voice sounded on the verge of panic. The controller calmed him, vectoring him out of the clouds and on to a heading for the airport. Soon his anxiety changed to immense relief as he found himself rolling out on short final at his home airport.

An Icy Saab Story

Every flight behind us was now diverting and the controller was busy shipping them off frequency towards their diversions. The FO and I quickly agreed that we would leave the flaps as they were and fly it onto the runway as it was. While I can’t recall the speed, it was well over the normal range (160 kts perhaps). I asked the FO how it was flying, as he had turned off the autopilot shortly after entering the freezing rain.

A Case of Stay-Here-Itis

I read every NWS Forecast discussion in the southeastern US, and looked at every weather app I could.  No one could agree on the storm track, and even how much of a threat the storm still presented. One thing was consistent, the storms intensity was going to weaken considerably, and really the main threat was going to be rain and occasional thunderstorms in the remnant bands around the low. There was just no agreement on where that low-pressure center would be positioned.

High-Tech One Upmanship

But transitioning from the airlines to a civilian pilot on long range flights in a turbine powered airplane was a shock! Now, instead of showing up in flight ops and finding my flight planning had all been done for me by my dispatcher, I was now the dispatcher. My learning curve was not steep, it was vertical!

Checkrides gone wrong: rope-a-dope

One of Gene’s pet maneuvers was to demonstrate to the student pilot that his senses would lie to him while flying in the clouds on instruments, or at night. The ultimate lesson objective was to trust your flight instruments, and not your senses. He would have the student put the instrument flying hood on, then do a couple of routine flight maneuvers by reference to the flight instruments, then “the show” would begin.

Checking off a bucket list item

Still wearing my flight suit as I walked about, I happened upon a large-scale model of a P-47 set in a WWII diorama.  I instantly recognized it as Francis Stanley ‘Gabby’ Gabreski’s P-47 from when he commanded the 61st Fighter Squadron (the ‘Top Dawgs’).  Gabby was the leading ace in the European Theater during WWII and is credited with destroying 34½ aircraft in aerial combat which made him one of only seven US combat pilots to become an ace in two wars. 

Flying with the Old Breed—Max Karant’s Twin Comanche

Max Karant was a celebrity in general aviation circles. Starting as an editor for Flying magazine in the 1940s, Max went on to become one of the founders of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA). Early in his career, he had headed the FAA off at the pass when they tried to gobble up airspace and hamstring general aviation. He provided hours of congressional testimony in this effort, and it paid off with the freedoms we enjoy in GA today.
CFI with student

Flying with the Old Breed—Why’d You Do That?

Diane tasked Charlie Stanton, a USMC veteran of WWII,  to instruct me in the craft and discipline of an instrument-rated pilot. Tall, lean, opinionated, and looking perpetually pissed off about something, Charlie was all business.  He didn’t mince his words either, speaking in that clipped, point-blank manner of the military. He could have been a character from a Pat Conroy novel.

Sounds you NEVER want to hear

I declared an emergency with the MacDill tower.  I also cleared the two students to break away and head straight to the base and get on the ground ASAP; I didn’t want to close the runway with them still in the air.  I directed the IP in #3 to ‘chase’ me, which meant he would be alongside to observe that my gear ‘blew down’, to back me up on the checklist, and to make sure I didn’t get ‘behind the aircraft’ as I handled this emergency. 
t-34

Navy primary flight training—the instructor had it coming

He explained roll control by snapping the stick left and right, causing my helmet to nearly strike the canopy. Then, to define pitch control, he sharply shoved the stick forward to about minus 1G, and hauled it back to about plus 2Gs. At about that point, straight ahead, a towering cumulus cell loomed up. We could have banked steeply right or left to avoid it but Morris chose a different path.
wing

The Captain is Lying and We can Prove It

Cruising along peacefully at 28,000 feet, and maybe 200 miles north of Los Angeles, I got a call on the interphone from the purser. She told me that some of the passengers on the right side of the first-class cabin were saying out loud that they thought the right engine was not running.
172rg

Multiple Cessna 172RGs made me a better pilot

I turned toward my side and saw that the the left main was hanging but not locked in the forward position. Uh Oh! I immediate called the Tower and explained my situation and they sent us out over toward Lake Winnebago to manually pump the gear down. A C-172RG gear should pump down and lock in 35 strokes (just like in the movies). About pump 100, I knew this was not going to work. It was a hydraulic system failure.