Remarks

My editorial on learning to fly after the kids are grown (Flight Begins at 40, or Maybe 50, March 2012 IFR) struck a chord and earned several responses. The story was consistent: Im 50 (or 60 or 70) and just learned to fly. Youre right, we need older people acting as advocates to get more people with the means and the long-dormant wanting to make the leap.

My home recently came under the attack of two adopted, seven-month-old kittens. Watch these pint-sized entropy enhancers for five minutes and youll know why they say cats have nine lives. Climbing the curtains sure seemed like a good idea at the time. Now hanging in space by 10 front claws and slipping, diverting to a Plan B might be in order. Then superior engineering borne of millennia of evolution kicks in, and dropping 15 times their own height ends with a perfect landing and a surprise attack on the lamp cord.

Today I'm daydreaming about sneaking into a boardroom where avionics execs are brainstorming the next generation of avionics. The more time I spend with...

One of my secret wishes is that when Im 90 Ill have at least half the belly-fire of Howie Keefe. The man is 90 (or maybe 91 now) and still attacks the day like hes flying a P-51-something he did 'round the pylons of Reno many years back. Thats just one facet of a flying career that would keep your rapt attention over several beers.

One of the bigger aviation stories as 2011 wound to a close was the fact that the FAA was going to start charging for...

As I write this editorial, the pilot community is buzzing with the news that Aeronav (a.k.a., the government chart folks) is going to start charging for the digital chart downloads after April 5, 2012. Well cover the fallout of this for IFR pilots in the next issue, as much of that fallout hinges on a meeting that wont happen until after we go to press.

I recently got an e-mail asking about ForeFlight's plans to add synthetic vision and asked myself if that even made sense. Is synthetic vision...

Last month we published an excellent article by Lee Smith, "Danger Below MDA." In it, Lee points out that for many non-precision approaches you...

There are only four reasons for pilots: military, function, transportation and fun. The military is largely independent, so we can ignore them. Function might include taking tourists up for a great view or it could mean flying miles of pipeline looking for oily, wet spots. Transportation is obvious: people and stuff need to get from all the Points A to all the Points B. Finally, fun is the reason were willing to spend thousands a year to go out to the airport on a nice Saturday and spend a couple hundred more to fly somewhere for a bad hamburger.

The FAA announced theyre gonna prune the umptyzillion instrument approaches maintained in the US. Its about time. After all, when was the last time you flew an NDB approach? In fact, when was the last time you flew an airplane with a working ADF that even could fly an NDB approach?

An examiner I once had put it this way: When giving a private checkride he was evaluating if hed be comfortable as a passenger with the prospective pilot. He equated giving an instrument checkride to deciding if hed be comfortable letting his wife and kids be the passengers. A good lesson, that. It helps me remember that my first responsibility is to my passengers.

Few metaphors have such tangible meaning as taking a few turns around the pattern and thinking, We see so far because we stand on the shoulders of giants. Its easy to tip my mental hat to the Wrights, Curtis or Whittle. But we each have inspired instructors or mechanics who found the burned valve before it failed. What about the oil-field hands whose labor we burn at high expense to practice flying in circles? Most of…