The following are a few of a female Part 135 pilot’s anecdotal encounters with the rest of the world. The outside temperature at the Talkeetna airport read minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit. It had warmed up from the overnight low, but I still struggled to make the de Havilland Otter ready for its flight to the ...
The following is a story about dealing with the ups and downs of learning to fly a bigger airplane. It was a chilly spring morning in Talkeetna, Alaska. An uncontrollable shiver racked me as I walked up to the gleaming Garrett Turbine Otter. Set against a pale sky populated by thin cirrus, the white airplane ...
The following is a story about what happens after the ELT goes off. It is written from the perspective of a fellow Alaska Range Pilot... who happens to be married to the incident commander of the search-and-rescue effort. At 6 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time on Aug. 4, a de Havilland Beaver on a scenic ...
I’m always puzzled by the awe with which so many people—some of them pilots themselves—regard those of us who regularly fly to other continents. From Day One, there was clearly nothing superhuman to me about the feat, especially given the incredible capability and redundancy of the equipment we operate. Modern business jets are as well ...
I’m often asked: Why pursue a career in business aviation? Most professional pilots measure their career with two metrics: compensation and quality-of-life. If scheduled airlines provide more of one or both of these, why would any right-thinking pilot consider private, charter, or corporate flying as anything other than a stepping stone to a Part 121 ...
Normally, paranoia is considered unhealthy. As it pertains to flying, however, in my experience a moderate dose can keep the doctor away much like the proverbial apple. It’ll keep the FAA, NTSB, and unemployment line at arm’s length as well. There are so many things to be concerned with when aviating that I find great ...
As I write this, a business jet was just on the news for rejecting a takeoff at a small airport in California that led to a fire that, by all accounts, destroyed the airplane. On the same day, I was evaluated during a flight by a check airman, and the rejected takeoff (RTO) procedure was ...
If you’re considering a career in the airlines or even in the corporate world, this time of year is one in which you should get into the habit of moving your brain from summer to winter operations. As I write this, it is not yet Labor Day, but temperatures have started to cool after a ...
As I write this, it has been less than 24 hours since the family of Capt. Al Haynes has announced his passing. Haynes was famously in command of United Flight 232 in the summer of 1989 when the DC-10 suffered a complete loss of hydraulic power after a fan blade on the number two (center) ...
