Clik here to view.
Ray Bradbury (8/22/1920-6/5/2012)
Word comes that Ray Douglas Bradbury has gone West, peacefully, at age 91. He blended soaring imagination with exquisite prose to conjure worlds more wonderful than we could conceive without his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: "China Pilot: Flying for Chiang and Chennault" by Felix Smith
There are two very good reasons to read Capt. Felix Smith's memoir, China Pilot. The first is to follow the author as he makes his way through the chaos that was Chinese aviation in the late 1940's....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sufficiently Interesting
My friend Craig from Oregon sort of wondered, in a recent comment, where N631S and I have been. He said: "FlightAware says N631S has been flying. Any details to share?"I responded to the effect that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fortunate Timing
When N631S and I departed KVKX for our northbound trip to Connecticut on Monday the forecast for KBDR, the destination airport, was quite reasonable. It called for a light southwesterly breeze, good...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ask for What You Need! (cont'd)
Friday's flight from KBDR to KVKX took me back to a theme I focused on about a year ago: the importance of asking ATC for what you need to stay out of trouble. You have to have good situational...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Today at KBDR (cont'd)
In July 1943 the US Army Air Forces accepted delivery (from the Douglas Aircraft plant at Long Beach, CA) of a C-47A-40-DL Skytrain aircraft carrying serial number 42-24064 and contractor's number...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Giant Leap for Mankind
He was the consummate test pilot. In those last eternal seconds as the LM descended, with the computer warning of errors and the fuel state approaching critical and the boulder field stretching out...
View ArticleClik here to view.
This is Why We Walk Around the Airplane
A while ago I posted a discussion of how to change the oil in a Cessna 182. On the list of items to be gathered in preparation for changing the oil I included "a helper." The helper becomes very useful...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Today at KBDR (cont'd)
Watching the weather forecasts this past weekend, it became quite clear that a Monday morning flight from the DC area to Bridgeport's Sikorsky Memorial Airport (KBDR) was a Bad Idea. Hurricane Sandy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It's Been Over a Week...
The seasons are changing, the weather is dynamic, and recently the flying has been somewhat entertaining. The last trip N631S and I made from Connecticut down to the DC area was a good example.It's...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Waiting Out the Fog
Last Monday I was concerned about whether N631S and I would be able to land at Bridgeport's Sikorsky Memorial Airport at the end of our northbound flight. Just over a week earlier the field had been...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Coolest Thing I Got for Christmas
Now I have to show off something that I think is really neat! Our daughter-in-law Kate is a staffer on Capitol Hill, and a while ago she got herself and son Rich onto the Capitol Dome Tour, which is a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Happy New Year (With a Look Back)
This is the fourth year that I've used this post title on 31 December. A year ago, I looked back on 2011 in this post, and a year earlier I reviewed 2010 in this one. The retrospective for 2009 was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Fairly Bad Week (Part 1 of 2)
Last week began and ended with flights that I will not cherish as warm and glowing memories of my aviation experience. And the first is going to be rather painful to discuss here.Monday began with a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Fairly Bad Week (Part 2 of 2)
As mentioned at the end of the previous post, the forecast on Friday morning foretold a large ridge of warm air arriving in the East, bringing rain but no risk of icing.The low centered over Chicago at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: "A Higher Call" by Adam Makos
Charlie Brown was perfectly clear about the situation. When the young journalist, having "heard a story", sought him out for an interview, he said, "If you really want to learn the whole story, learn...
View ArticleMy '709 Drive
Those of you that visit here regularly will recall that early in January I was involved in an incident wherein N631S struck and slightly damaged another aircraft (described in this post). At the time I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: "The Dog Stars" by Peter Heller
The post-apocalyptic novel has been with us at least since Mary Shelley published The Last Man in 1826. The basic model is familiar the author invokes some catastrophe to kill off the vast majority...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Contact the Tower..."
The Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) at my more northerly "home 'drome", Sikorsky Memorial Airport (KBDR), is scheduled to close on or about the 5th of May due to the funding cut-off known as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
2013 Annual Inspection (i)
Yesterday was the first day of N631S's Annual Inspection availability for 2013. My friends at Three Wing Aviation Group will be doing the inspection and associated work package and this year Tony...
View Article