Last month I spent a considerable amount of time reflecting on the balance between risk versus reward having completed the last leg of my journey home from Montana in less than favorable conditions. What drove me to reflecting on those tense moments when the smoke obscured my visibility beyond expectations was an airplane that took […]
I’ve been writing in my journal about the balance between risk and reward and having read the harrowing tale of three people who were recently killed flying into a canyon minutes from their home airport, the struggle to find the balance between the two is even more on my mind. Airplane accidents in today’s likes […]
Gracefully she standsyearning for the skies once moreon her mother’s lap. Under the age of two, Oakli is legal to be the cutest third passenger in our Cub. And a great passenger she is. Much like her father, itching for those moments to be aloft, staring out towards infinity, gazing into the miniaturized world below, […]
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Approaching Cedar Valley from the east, listening into the unpublished common frequency, I began to hear the position reports of a fellow disciple of flight partaking in the morning’s idyllic conditions on this beautiful Saturday.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 […]