The heat of the summer makes flying vintage, “underpowered” airplanes in the high desert a challenge. Record highs across the west make you wonder if the designers of these flying machines even fathomed their operation in such an unforgiving environment. Oil temperatures that dance the ragged edge on what is comfortable force you to reconsider […]
Repeatedly die-hard EAA attendees will point out that the week long celebration of all things aviation related isn’t about the airplanes. The people, they’ll say, are the reason they keep coming. While I share that same sentiment in my various experiences at EAA’s AirVenture event, from an EAA employee, to an exhibitor, and now an […]
Concrete floors. Steel structural beams. Corrugated sides and roof. The hangar that once held our Cub never felt like home. Hangars adjacent to it rarely opened, and even if they did, file cabinets, old refrigerators, and parts of what was once an experimental Super Cub that learned the lesson about landing on the Great Salt […]
Living out of a suitcase with predetermined travel itineraries, opportunities for the creative and the adventurous are in the eyes of the beholder. Reallocating time predestined for rest, the brave and the bold turn the lemons computer algorithms present as our schedules into the sweetest lemonade around. The Garden State rarely makes an appearance on […]
Approaching Cedar Valley from the east, listening into the unpublished common frequency, I began to hear the position reports of a fellow disciple of flight partaking in the morning’s idyllic conditions on this beautiful Saturday. My intentions this morning were to attend the West Desert Airpark Memorial Day Fly-in, where the owners of the airpark […]
The airport is more than a few thousand feet of flat earth. Children will flock to whatever’s left of a nearby airport and gaze into the skies taking in as much second-hand aviation as fences and badged entries will allow. Young adults with the flying hook deep in their gills will see their local airport […]
I’ve been thinking of warmer climates. Double breasted, double jacketed, the former Arizonian longs for the winter desert climates. Deice trucks and their pre-departure blessing send us through the obscured skies deep into the firmament where divinely placed cloud layers permit the views of those formerly traveled lands. Writing now about wandering earlier, my soul […]
Deep within hangars filled with the airplanes that man-made machines created, hidden to the layman behind Bonanzas and Barons are the apples of my eye, the pure manifestations of those who share a true passion for flight. Having yet to meet the hands and the hearts behind masterpieces such as this, I know short of […]
For years I’ve had the opportunity to fly over these lands and marvel in their changing colors, textures, and reflections, many times finding myself lost in the processes of enjoying these moments versus capturing these moments. The struggle seems to become more upfront as of late, whether the distractions of remembering it later outweigh the […]
There are moments in our lives that invite memories, emotions, and tears into our existence. The sorrowful walks through the halls of memorabilia left behind from astronauts who’s final moments had the eyes of the world upon them, the origins of those tears are known. Experience has granted us that luxury of knowing why staring […]