Preflight

Writing, online and in print

I know several aviation blog authors, and a couple of them have suggested that I write one. I don't know about that--I already have a lot to write. Besides, other than the general concept, I don't know very much about blogs. Curious, I did a little research recently, when the weather wasn't suitable for flying.

So, what exactly is a blog? Because this is an online phenomenon, I looked up blog on Wikipedia, a collaborative online encyclopedia:

"A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a web site where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. 'Blog'can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs."

How many of them are there? As of September 2007, according to Wikipedia, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 106 million blogs. A quick search found 7,493 blogs on the topic of flying, 873 about aircraft, and 148 on the subject of learning to fly.

Closer examination of those search results revealed some off-topic material, including blogs that really were about similar-sounding subjects such as fly fishing. Their content is more often opinion than fact, and some of the ones I visited had not been updated in more than a year. Nevertheless, one can find a plethora of interesting aviation tidbits out in the blogosphere.

Which airport sucks--and is proud of it? Sioux Gateway Airport/Col. Bud Day Field in Sioux City, Iowa, was assigned the unenviable FAA three-letter airport identifier SUX. "Of course, Sioux City didn't really like that, so they petitioned the FAA to have it changed," says A Pilot's Blog. Turns out the other choices weren't any better. "The airport has decided to turn the tables around and use the unique identifier to their benefit." And it has; a link from the airport's Web site takes you to an online store that sells "Fly SUX" caps, T-shirts, and bumper stickers.

Flying in Shawnee is one of many blogs in which a student pilot details his flight-training progress. In early December its author, a 41-year-old computer programmer in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, had scrubbed three consecutive lessons because of the weather. I can certainly empathize.

The author of the Student Pilot Blog earned his private pilot certificate last October but continues to post; it sounds like an instrument rating is in his future.

Among other things, The Airplane Blog offered a link to a 30-second video clip of a pilot performing a barrel roll in a Cessna. "He might be new at doing this, because he seems really excited to do it and even more excited after he pulled it off," blogger Garry Conn wrote. "I am not sure of the risks involved with barrel rolling your Cessna, but it does look fun!" Personally, the only Cessna in which I'd perform that maneuver is the 152 Aerobat--which may be the model shown in the video; it's hard to tell.

Remember when the airlines served real food? Jetwhine features "Aviation buzz and bold opinion" from Robert Mark, a flight instructor and former airline and corporate pilot who works as an aviation consultant. A recent post recalled the day when airline food was called cuisine. "It may be difficult to imagine, but the airline industry was not always the focus of the intense scorn we see today...People used to dress up to fly on an airliner," Mark noted. "What airline used to serve Sauerkraut Balls as part of the luncheon between San Francisco and Chicago? And who offered Chicken Korma and Vanilla Bavoris between Tokyo and Hong Kong, or Poached Medallion of Salmon with salmon mousse en route between Moscow and London?" Northwestern University's transportation library has a collection of airline menus, searchable online, that prompted the column; Jetwhine more commonly addresses professional pilot topics.

Speaking of airlines, Southwest Airlines has a corporate blog that, in early December, offered practical tips for holiday travelers.

One blog told me I just missed an episode of the cable television show Mythbusters in which Jamie and Adam were going to find out if they could land a Boeing 747 without any training. Rats--I bet that would have been interesting. Oh, well, I'll have to catch a rerun--unless somebody bootlegs a video clip of the show, posts it online, and I find it through somebody's aviation blog.

Do you read any aviation blogs? If so, what do you think about them? What ones do you like and respect? Please e-mail me your thoughts on the subject, along with any blogs you'd like to recommend to other AOPA Flight Training readers. If we get some good ones, we'll print them in a future issue of the magazine.

Do you like to write? Not blogs, necessarily, but just writing in general? If so, remember that AOPA Flight Training does accept unsolicited manuscripts for possible publication in the magazine. What you did to overcome a learning plateau, or another of your experiences in learning to fly, could be helpful or inspirational to another student pilot. You don't have to be a flight instructor with thousands of flight hours, either; we're glad to consider submissions from student pilots.

One of the most popular departments in the magazine is "Learning Experiences" (see p. 37). It's an ideal forum for pilots--especially students--to share the lessons they've learned during their flight training with other student pilots. Even better, we'll pay you if your story is selected for publication. (No, the payment won't allow you to retire early, but it could be used to cover an hour or two of aircraft rental.)

Another good outlet for your writing talents is "Why We Fly" (see p. 64), which shares the joy of flight by telling the story of what motivated a pilot to learn to fly. These articles are extremely motivational and inspirational, especially to beginning students. Qualified subjects can range from student pilots who have only flown a few hours to longtime pilots who have logged tens of thousands of hours.

If you're a writer, or an aspiring writer, who would like to put your skills to work, we'd like to hear from you. Jill W. Tallman, AOPA Flight Training's associate editor, can e-mail you a copy of our writers'guidelines. If you want some feedback on an article idea before you invest time in writing it, drop either of us a note. We'd be glad to share our thoughts.

E-mail Mike Collins, editor of AOPA Flight Training, at [email protected].