From the Cockpit, by Kevin Garrison
Welcome! Come on in, grab a cup of airport coffee and pull up a folding chair. This is the first installment of a blog that will bring you into the fun and exciting, sometimes hot, sweaty and scary...
View ArticleThe Pilot Personality
Pilots are as varied as snowflakes, but they are all made of the same stuff. Men and women who fly aircraft for a living share characteristics that make them easy to pick out of a crowd of non-flyers,...
View ArticleWeather Decisions
It has been raining all the way to the airport as you drive out to begin your business trip. Will your flight crew be able to handle the nasty stuff? What can they fly though anyway? What kind of...
View ArticleFive Things to Know About Turbulence
Your pilot has made a short announcement telling you that it might “get a little bumpy up ahead” and mentioned that you might want to make sure your seatbelt is fastened. The airplane starts jumping...
View ArticleCharter Flight Crew Training
Many people assume that sinc charter and other business travel aircraft are smaller than airliners that their pilots get less training than their airline counterparts. Not true – Flight crews...
View ArticleWinter Weather Flying
Winter weather flying can certainly be a problem for airplanes and passengers. It isn’t just the discomfort you might experience on the walk out to your plane. Cold and ice are things that have vexed...
View ArticleFive Questions about Pilots and Autopilots
There have been a few aviation incidents lately that have led the FAA and many professional flight departments wonder about whether or not the almost constant use of automation is bad for flight safety...
View ArticleCrew Rest Periods
The movie-based ideas about pilots being swashbuckling types who can shake off long periods without sleep by chugging black coffee and forcing themselves awake are a thing of the past. No pilot wants...
View ArticlePart 135 Operations
Most depictions of aviation charters in the movies and on television feature a crazy-eyed pilot who is not ashamed to scare the life out of his or her passengers. The plane shown on the screen is...
View ArticleZap-Flaps, Winglets and a Spoiler Alert
Aviation is considered by many to be a very modern and state-of-the-art sort of thing. We can travel close to the speed of sound to almost any destination we want. Continents can be traversed in the...
View ArticleFive Things Your Aircraft’s Pressurization System Would Like You to Know
Humans were designed to stay very close to the ground and live in the paper-thin layer of oxygen, nitrogen and other gasses that we happily call “the atmosphere.” This apple skin thick layer of...
View ArticleTwo Pilots, One Pilot, or No Pilot?
Weapons and bombs are being fired from drones in the air and package delivery to your business or home may soon be done via drone. Do we really need pilots anymore for air travel? I would say yes, but...
View ArticleAir Taxi
Most depictions of aviation charters in the movies and on television feature a crazy-eyed pilot who is not ashamed to scare the life out of his or her passengers. The plane shown on the screen is...
View ArticleSee and Avoid: Mid-Air Collision
You might think by looking at how the media portrays aviation that mid-air collisions are a daily event. When aircraft run into each other it makes for exciting news reporting. The problem, for the...
View ArticleFlying: Matters of Scale
Flying, appropriately enough is completely based on the measurement of things. Altitude, attitude, temperature, speed, vertical speed, weight, volume, distance, time and even personal limits that are...
View ArticleGray Hair in the Air
Pilots are usually thought of as young, swashbuckling types with keen eyes, razor-sharp reflexes and youthful looks. The flying public has been led over the years to assume that piloting an aircraft is...
View ArticleHitting the Silk: The Cirrus Airframe Parachute
The Cirrus line of single-engine aircraft has become a mainstay of charter and corporate flight departments. These aircraft look sleek and modern on the ramp and they deliver passengers and cargo to...
View ArticleSky Pirates!
You are at lunch with a business colleague and the subject of your pending business trip comes up. You tell your tablemate that you have been using a local air taxi service for your flights and that...
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