Meditation

From anxiety to mindfulness meditation – a pilot’s journey to wellbeing

I didn’t want to “self-disclose” anything that could ground me, and I really didn’t have a clue about what anxiety or depression was or how to treat it. I wasn’t suicidal or anything so who do I talk to? Who can I trust that won’t end up grounding me on the spot? For many of us, the thought of “talking to someone” can actually make the anxiety worse.
Cessna 340

My favorite feature – a relief tube

Everything was ready to go, except I really should go pee before we hop in the airplane…"Nah, I’ll just go when we get to our fuel stop in Kentucky." Despite this being back in the stone age, we did have a GPS in the plane. Unfortunately I must not have been very adept at using it, because instead of the 20 knot quartering headwind that was forecast, this stupid thing kept saying I had 45 knots on the nose. "That can’t… be.. right…"
Boeing 737 MAX

Can Boeing trust pilots?

The media uproar created by two fatal accidents in new Boeing 737 MAX airline jets makes me wonder if Boeing, or any transport jet maker, can continue to trust pilots to be a critical part of aircraft systems. Let me explain.
SkyMax airplane

A new aircraft – and a new dimension to air travel

One day it dawned on me that if the aviation industry would develop a large airplane that gives passengers a panoramic view, it would lay the foundation for a new dimension to air travel. But engineering an airplane like that is nearly impossible given the purpose of commercial air travel which is to provide transportation, nothing else.
Surgeons

From zero to hero – every professional was once an amateur

In aviation, a newly minted private pilot is given some of the same responsibilities and authorizations shared by their 30,000 hour ATP counterparts. I see many similarities to the newly graduated surgeon working among his more seasoned peers with 20 years of experience and thousands of operations under their belts.
Captain

10 ways to know you’re ready to be an airline captain

I completed my line check last night, which went pretty smooth overall. I screwed up the usual stupid stuff you don’t normally screw up, but because the weight of the check is present in your head and really nowhere else, this stuff happens. I am left with the feeling of what now?
Tower controller

The case against practicing in the pattern

The title is a misnomer, but if I were to put in the actual title it would be: As important as practice in the pattern is, it doesn't always prepare you for what can happen before and after getting cleared to land, and practice approaching from beyond the pattern is important also.
Kid in airplane

“Is it always like this?”

The purpose of programs like the EAA Young Eagles and Civil Air Patrol Cadet orientation flights are to introduce our youth to aviation. It is not only a good thing to do in and of itself. It is essential if we are to pass on our aviation heritage so that it can continue and develop through the future. Sometimes, though, I think we focus too much on the airplane or on piloting, and not enough on flying.

How to safely solo a student in minimum time

Another CFI joined me in the grass area between the runway and the taxiways, as we both watched my student solo. I enjoyed smiling to the CFI who joined me and my student waved at me as he passed us halfway on his second takeoff roll. The student was smiling and waving at me with confidence in what he was doing - with only six hours of total time.
Airline pilots

Chasing the rabbit

You can go your whole career chasing the rabbit; chasing the airline, chasing the airplane, chasing the seat, always being junior. You can go your whole career and miss everything. You can miss your kids growing up, your marriage, your friends, holidays, weekend events, miss your life.
Bahamas

What are your favorite airports?

Pilots all have their favorite airports, for any number of reasons including the fun that’s awaiting once they arrive. When a friend asked me the other day which airports were my favorites, I made a list. So, in no particular order…
Bush pilot landing

The old, bold pilots of Alaska

We’ve all heard it, and most of us have said it: "There are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots." I’m here to tell you that such purported wisdom isn’t very wise at all. Not long ago, Alaska was filled with old, bold bush pilots. In fact, if you weren’t just a little on the bold side, you had no business at all in trying to fly Alaska’s great outback.
Night flight

Why night flying is special

Night flights are distinct. They are pretty rare for me. They seem unorthodox and more dangerous. It’s uncomfortable not being able to see everything as one would during the daylight hours. The excitement of my first night flight during training was unforgettable. The whole atmosphere around the airport was different. It was eerie.

Purchase your training aircraft prior to your first flight lesson

I was seriously investigating the pursuit of my lifelong dream of becoming a pilot when I engaged a corporate pilot in conversation about learning to fly. One of the things that he spoke about in becoming a pilot was to consider first purchasing a taildragger aircraft of my own to take my flight lessons in.
Cessna on final

Basic math for pilots: does it still matter?

Most of the new-hires came completely unglued when forced to execute visual approaches – especially when cleared for such approaches while still quite high and many miles from the field. He said his flights were often forced to miss the first attempts at visual approaches and go around because of the airplanes being much too high on their profiles; I wondered to myself how such a systemic problem could exist in this computerized age.
San Juan Islands

My Bonanza is a time and dimension machine

Bonanza N3255V, born in 1947, is the machine that allows us to enter a world that I still struggle to get my head around. It is a world of possible extreme juxtapositions. We climb into the aluminum tube, go up into the air, and whisk across the planet to land anywhere we choose and instantly enter a different world – not forgetting the experience along the way.
CFI with student in Cessna

What I learned about instructors during private pilot training

The greatest weakness a student pilot has is that they lack the pilot skills to judge the quality of the super pilot assigned to be their instructor. Before first solo, the new student has all instructors on a throne. The CFI is god-like, certified by the government and endowed with such superior skills that they can “teach ME to fly.”

Where is the upwind leg?

I had taken off from a small airport in southern Arizona, when the tower asked me to extend my upwind leg. “I’ll extend departure leg,” I acknowledged. I just happened to be flying with my CFI, who is also a controller at the same airport. My CFI gave me a quizzical look. I asked, “why do controllers use incorrect terminology to describe the departure leg?”
Sunset from cockpit

An ode to flying – and why it’s different from piloting

So what is flying? Clearly it is riding inside a machine in the sky. The machine can be very simple or extremely complex -- but each one is a ride into the sky. From takeoff to landing, the pilot is flying in the sky by controlling a machine which will return to earth.
Wall map

The enlightenment: how flying has made it all my hometown

I realized flying has made it all my hometown. My neighborhood now stretches from sea to shining sea; I am a part of all of it. I thought of a trip from Chicago to Texas where a storm system left me options through Kansas or through Georgia. Either one would work. As easy as picking a bank branch on one of two corners, my choice for convenience now can cross a thousand miles.