Professional Flying
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Aviation’s Number One Rule
In my 40+ years of flying I have seen several aircraft accidents unfold while I watched. A few turned out well and the aircraft occupants (and occasionally the aircraft) were able to fly another day. Others turned out not so well. Of the aircraft fatal accidents that I have seen, all appeared to have the…
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Airline Retirement – New Directions?
Those of you who frequent these pages have probably noticed that I haven’t been posting any new articles lately. I have several things going on right now, not the least of which is my airline retirement in the beginning of next year. AroundThePattern has been an interesting experiment. I have ambled along writing articles when…
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A Morning with Malcolm the Skycrane
I went out flying yesterday, just a short flight to help a friend confirm the indicated airspeed he was reading on his recently completed RV-6A. I stopped and refueled after the flight, taxied back to the hangar and pushed the plane back into it’s parking spot. Just as I finished a stranger walked into the…
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Flying Through the Night
Apparently the officials at the Narita, Japan airport want to make sure that after a 10+ hour flight across the Pacific we know where we have landed. The west side of 16R/34L has a really beautiful hedge of plants in the shape of the airport name with an operational clock on it’s southern end. Things…
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Before There Were VORs
In October of last year I had the opportunity to fly in an original Curtiss JN-4H “Jenny” . I mentioned then that it had acted as a time machine, propelling me backward in time to when aviation was just getting started. Flying the Jenny got me thinking more about what it must have been like…
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Airport Overflights
The weather cooperated last month on a couple of my trips and I was able to take photos of airports that I don’t usually get to see. This first one is on the Southeast coast of Iceland. I took this photo from about FL350 . (I did a little enhancing in Photoshop, but not much.)…