Is it already the July 4th weekend?
Here are some flying stories that you may have missed this week:
Something to do between graduation and full employment
This article is from the Daily Bruin. Shana had just graduated from UCLA with a degree in economics and had some time off before her employer needed her to start work…. what to do?
A Family with three generations of aviation lovers.
This article is from Sidney, Montana. It relates one family’s love of aviation, spanning 50 years.
The Girls in the Blue Beret
This is a book review from the Washington Post. The book The Girl in the Blue Beret by Bobbie Mason is a story of a retired airline pilot who, now widowed, grounded and unemployed, decides to go back to Europe and try to find the people who saved his life when his B-17 was shot down during WWII. It sounds like a really good book. I have ordered it and have placed an affiliate link in the right sidebar.
Another opinion piece concerning AF 447
This is from Aviation International News. Rob Mark, of Aviation Geeks Podcast fame(?), published an opinion piece on the Air France Flight 447 crash. The question, once again, is brought up about whether we are producing pilots or systems operators.
His family is an RV-4
This article is from OA Online. It is that tells a little about an individual flying out of Roy Schlemeyer Field in Odessa, TX. A nice story. It caught my eye because I have flown out of the airport – way back when. I’m not a glider pilot, but I have a half hour of time in one – with Roy Schlemeyer out of the airport that now bears his name. It was also the airport where I first soloed a Globe Swift – the one I owned for 36 years. Small world.
A story of successful mentoring
This one is from Fox Atlanta. It recounts the story of a young man mentored for the past 7 years by a group of individuals who instilled in him the gift of giving. Another nice story.
Aviation in Miami and Pan Am in New York
This article is from the Miami New Times blog. It is an article describing a new exhibit at History Miami that recounts the growth of aviation in Miami – once the home of Pan Am Airlines. It looks like a really nice exhibit.
Aviation comes to Grosse Pointe
This article is from the Grosse Pointe Patch. It recounts the flight of a Wright brothers aircraft in the Michigan town one hundred years ago.
A Buffalo man receives the Wright Brothers Award
This one is from the Buffalo News – and does not refer to the Colgan Air accident. Herman Goldstein got his first ride in an airplane when he was 13 years old and attending a Boy Scout camp – well before the Young Eagles program had begun. Now he is 88 years old and has been awarded the prestigious Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award.
The last flying A-3 Skywarrior is now in a museum.
This one is from pnj.com. A contract civilian pilot delivered the last flying A-3 Skywarrior to the Pensacola Naval Air Station for display in the museum there. Why a contract pilot? Because he was the only one they could find still qualified to fly one.
EXTRA:
One of my readers passed this one along, so I thought I’d add it here for everyone’s benefit. D-Dalus aircraft design introduced at Paris Airshow. No wings, stationary or rotating on this aircraft. Sounds interesting.
Comments
7 responses to “Aviation Articles for July 1, 2011”
Happy Independence Day to you, Sir. I see another worthy collection of fun and informative articles, most of which I would never have seen. Thanks!
Of note or not , on 13 July I begin a modified Ground School program and I am looking forward to it. I’m a 600+ hour pilot, but >30 years stale on everything. I do not intend to fly again, but thought that my personal enjoyment might be enhanced by taking some ground courses to update the old neurons to current airspace and navigation standards. I got lucky and found a comprehensive ground program that would allow me to ‘audit’ their courses for the cost of materials – and with no expectation of formal, FAA credit. I have to buy the books (not an issue) and do my home work, take the exams and suffer through the evaluations. I do not get to fly, but I migt be able to buy my way into a partial evaluation, **with the CFI-II as PIC** just for fun. We’ll see. For the most part, I’m looking at the ground school opportunity as an intense, yet informal way to rehab my 30-year stale knowledge base. Within a year, I’ll have learned the modern navigation practices and understand them a whole lot better – and just for neuron stimulation and some vicarious fun. Quite seriously, I do not expect to fly again; it is just not in the cards. I can get my jollies with an audit pass to these courses, including the newest IFR procedures when I get there, and without having to pay for airplanes, fuel, instructor’s time and the lot. For an old, long-grounded pilot, it is an opportunity that I cannot pass. With serious and no flight performance requirement , I expect to lead the class’s performance scale! OK, sure… If my IRAs and other income allow it, I might take a few hours of air time and even a pseudo IFR validation, but no, a real return to flying is not in the cards. As noted, this just keep the neurons happy when I’m not cutting brush. Thanks again for your weekly list of interesting reads; they are FUN and they help to keep the arm-chair pilots well briefed. Regards,
-Craig.
Craig,
Good for You! I wouldn’t be surprised if you got so involved in flying with the classes that your desire to get back into the air would re-kindle, too. You’re a perfect candidate for the Sport Pilot level of flying. With your current certificates it would just require getting back up to speed in the knowledge area – which you already have a plan to do – and then a checkout in a Light Sport Aircraft that would include a new Flight Review.
I’m doing a one-on-one Private Pilot groundschool with a friend of mine who hasn’t been in the air in 5-6 years. He has a C-182 grounded with a crankshaft AD and never finished his PPL certificate training. He’s teaching me a lot – but then teachers usually learn just about as much as the student as you progress through the program.
Good luck to you. I’d like to hear how you progress through the course. And, as always, if you have any questions that you aren’t getting answered satisfactorily by the people you are working with – send them along and I’ll do my best.
tracy
Here’s an interesting obit on the designer of the B-58, among other things.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/business/03widmer.htm
Jim,
Thanks for that link. It’s a really good article and the kind of thing I look for to include in my Friday posts.
I actually got a ride in a B-58 back in 1968 when they were based in Little Rock, AR. It was a 3-seat version and I occupied the center seat. We flew down to the Gulf of Mexico and made a supersonic run at mach 2+, then headed back to Little Rock. I got a little stick time at subsonic speeds. Another B-58 had landed and collapsed a landing gear while we were gone, so the field was closed. We held for a while, then diverted to Blytheville to refuel before finally getting back to Little Rock. It was quite the day for me.
Tracy
Hi (again) Tracy,
Thanks for the note and your generous offer of support. You are correct that the Sport Pilot ticket would be ideal – if I wanted to go flying. We’ll see… My real motivation is some brain activity other than reading and mostly for the wet months. The real purpose is simply to better understand today’s GA and airspace environments and to better understand what today’s pilots are talking about. Thirty years is a long time to be stale, don’t ya know! Since the basic physics of flying have not changed (about the only thing that has not), I’ve skipped the 101 level and I’ll begin with regulations, rules of the road and navigation topics that have changed so much. For my program, skipping the 101 basics is a same and convenient way to keep me grounded, in more than one sense, pun intended. I expect mostly fun, some challenges and a far better understanding of what pilots face in today’s airspace. No less, but no more. I may well arrange some air time along the way, but only with a fully qualified partner aboard. Validating the old tickets is not part of the program. Thanks again for the weekly posts and your offer of counsel. With zero fear of failure or career consequences, this is pure fun. And, for exactly those reasons, I’ll do just fine. Some folks are happy with a garden and others enjoy pulling the handles on low-odds bandits. I have to learn. I do not need to fly (yet – I can see those grins) but I do have to learn. Regards,
-Craig
Craig,
Whatever the outcome, have a ball with it!
tr
Bank on it! -C.