Blog Profile / Cockpit Conversation
| URL : | http://airplanepilot.blogspot.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Transportation / Commercial Aviation | |
| Posts on Regator: | 1077 | |
| Posts / Week: | 4.1 | |
| Archived Since: | April 25, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
Death Before Dishonour
Years ago, a chief pilot I was fond of told me during a flight that he was leaving for another company. I congratulated him (we were both working for the kind of company that even being fired from was probably grounds for congratulations) and then I reflected silently for a while, knowing I would miss him. Show More Summary
Screw Bronze
Commenter Pete Templin broke the news here first: the remarkable author, athlete and rights advocate Dr. Elizabeth McClung passed away at the end of April, after spending years defying doctors' prognoses and anyone's expectations of what or who she was or could do. Show More Summary
Ramblings Including Oxygen
This is a story about helping to train a pilot who was hired to take my job after I leave. I want to keep this job now, but then I want every aviation job. I cried handing in my resignation from a flight instruction job to work at an airline, and I once worked three different flying jobs at once because I loved them all. Show More Summary
Bad Vibrations?
Summer pre-dawn departure. I do the preflight inspection in a lighter hangar, then tow the airplane out onto the ramp. The sky is black, with slightly lighter grey patches where a few stratus clouds reflect city lights back towards me. Show More Summary
Made in China
Li Jingchun, a farmer in China has built what amounts to an art installation or perhaps a plaything, a tribute to his love of airplanes. It's something that he's clearly been inspired to create. It's fun to look at and he has every right to be proud of it, but the media coverage is strange.
Not strange that it's covered at all. Show More Summary
When Omni Was Futuristic
I'm VFR inbound to a controlled airport on a day with a high thin overcast. Beautiful day for flying: no glare, little turbulence, old snow still sparkling on the ground below, but the runways and taxiways perfectly clear. The controller tells me to call ten miles out and asks another aircraft to report "over the OMNI." How retro. Show More Summary
Asteroid Warning Light
Just as there are certain streets I shouldn't walk down, there are certain parts of the Internet to which I should know better than to go, but sometimes I take a wrong turn. As Randall Munroe lamented, "Someone is wrong on the Internet."
I...Show More Summary
Dressing Up for Leftovers
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy These guys received vouchers good for free or very cheap first class airline travel from a family friend. They turned up dressed like paying passengers. Their...Show More Summary
It Would Probably Work As an Air Filter, Too
I'm blogging about trying out a product, because it makes me feel important when people send me things for my opinion, and every once and a while this is fun to do. No one pays me to blog about any of the things they send me, nor threatens to take them away if I say mean things about their product. Show More Summary
Not Me and Not In Front of Me
This gives me the chills, not for the usual "please don't let me forget to put the gear down" reason evoked by seeing someone else land on the belly. I imagine myself flight planned into Iqaluit of origin because having this happen ahead of me is one of the scenarios that goes through my head a lot. Show More Summary
Red Eyes Can Signify Dehydration
I was told once in a human factors course that dehydration by as little as two percent has a measurable effect on a person's decision-making ability. The course was generally dull and redundant--I remember entertaining myself by devising and sharing "Buzzword Bingo" cards--but that factoid struck a chord. Show More Summary
Blog Fodder
It's time to land so I tune the ATIS, and then tell Centre its identifying letter, the code proving I have listened to the recorded information. I know from it that the wind is as strong as when I left, still straight down the runway. Show More Summary
I Had One of Those But the Wheels Fell Off
I've had people accuse me of not liking the Dash-8 but the accusation is false. They can look a little ungainly because of their high wing and long gear legs, but why would I disrespect a versatile Canadian-made turboprop? I love Dash-8s. Show More Summary
Here's My Transponder
I do my flight planning in the morning and drop off the documents for the hotel desk to fax. The Flight Information Region department that takes our flight plans doesn't accept electronic submissions yet. Hotel breakfast is a surprisingly good omelet. Show More Summary
Getting With The Times
In response to a request to make text links more readable, I took the plunge and clicked the "update blog template" button, the one I've been ignoring for years. My apologies for not seeing the low contrast issue earlier. For me all the links were always visited, and stood out vividly. Show More Summary
Putting the Needles on the Lines
I'm thinking of a day I've spent up in the flight levels, technically IFR, because we have to be IFR to fly this high, but my IFR flight plan is so unlike the ones that Air Canada flies that I have to file it with a separate department. Show More Summary
Stompin' Tom
I'm not much of a music aficionado, approaching songs the way a blind person does a Playboy magazine: for the words alone. (Yes, there is, or at least was once a Braille edition of Playboy). I like interesting lyrics that tell a story and make me laugh. Show More Summary
Russia: The New Frontier
I know that Russia is a very old frontier, probably somewhat explored well before most of North and South America were populated for the first time, and by some of the same people, judging by the similarities of the circumpolar languages, but now it appears to be the cutting edge of lawless innovation. Show More Summary
Human Beings Are Awesome
I'm further south today, in more civilized climes. We're coordinating with a second crew that operates at different altitudes, a different range of speeds, and has set up the job with totally different parameters. They are from a sister...Show More Summary
Women Colour the Skies
I encourage my female readers who will be flying, maintaining, controlling or dispatching airplanes between March 4th and 10th to participate in this challenge. The idea is to log all the flights that women make happen, and presumably they'll make a graphic out of it, connecting the corners of the world. Show More Summary