-
-
7:06
»
Cockpit Conversation 
Security signs usually make me laugh. They're so earnest and serious and I can imagine them being discussed and approved by a committee somewhere. I suppose that people may see signs reminding them to
-
-
0:10
»
Cockpit Conversation
Poisons are often labelled with a skull and crossbones logo to warn of their toxicity, but I've found another skull-related warning symbol: the skull of a hooved mammal warns of poor living accommodat
-
-
10:37
»
Cockpit Conversation
In an attempt to test the physical security of aircraft parked overnight on the ramp at O'Hare, a TSA inspector climbed on top of nine different American Eagle airplanes, using the external Total Air
-
-
16:10
»
Cockpit Conversation
I had to laugh at this combination of newspaper headlines. If you can't read it in the ph
-
-
14:52
»
Cockpit Conversation
Many autopilots incorporate a flight director, a little V-shaped device that pops up on
the attitude indicator to tell you where the autopilot thinks it should fly. I've seen the flight
dir
-
-
9:11
»
Cockpit Conversation
I admire the following sentence.
Large portions of this section were written in a hotel in Ban Hat Yai, Thailand, which is one of the
information-transfer capitals of the planet regardless of whet
-
-
19:25
»
Cockpit Conversation
I wasn't going to blog today, but instead decided to pass you
this chicken cartoon. Even advanced self-awareness has its downsid
-
-
9:48
»
Cockpit Conversation
There's a particular stretch of North America that I have flown over many times, usually on a
long flight, usually in hot weather. Every time I am there I look down and see the same beautiful
lake
-
-
19:32
»
Cockpit Conversation
So, having passed the portion of the flight test that takes place on the ground, I head out to
the airplane. You don't go flying unless you pass on the ground.
When we get to the airplane, the exam
-
-
10:46
»
Cockpit Conversation
I recovered from food poisoning, got a practice session in and prepared my notes for the flight test. That morning I arrived at the flying school just after it opened, so I had lots of time to get the
-
-
12:31
»
Cockpit Conversation
When you order a soft drink in an American restaurant, two things are assumed. One: you will get a drinking straw, wrapped and sealed in a paper tube. You are not required to lift a drinking glass to
-
-
14:15
»
Cockpit Conversation
I'm not home much, but the place I live has a lawn and some plants. They're great plants, the kind that have lots of flowers on them, and don't die altogether even if I never water them, and come back
-
-
21:04
»
Cockpit Conversation
I've wanted to fly for a fractional jet ownership company for a while. It's a good combination of being able to provide personal, high-end service, while still having a lot of variety, and the trainin
-
14:12
»
Cockpit Conversation
So I went to the concert. We lined up for an hour or so to get through a security bag check. It was like being at an airport, except we didn't have to take off our shoes. They made everyone dump out t
-
-
14:07
»
Cockpit Conversation
I arrived home and the next day turned up for a rental checkout in the small airplane I would take my instructor renewal test in. A rental checkout is like a little mini flight test, just to ensure th
-
-
13:50
»
Cockpit Conversation
Returning to Canada through a busy airport I found myself in a customs hall packed with travellers. The wickets at the end of the room differentiated between residents and visitors, but although there
-
-
21:01
»
Cockpit Conversation
Back, by popular demand
My job is not just to fly the airplane but to have the airplane ready to fly, and to be there for my client to fly the airplane when its needed. It's definitely part of
-
18:16
»
Cockpit Conversation
This is kind of a part two to my earlier post office description, because it didn't fit well in the
first entry. On one wall of the post office was an notice telling men to sign up for the draft,
-
-
16:32
»
Cockpit Conversation
I have to mail a package before my flight back to Canada today, but because of time zones I can't
get the destination address until 9 a.m. So I'm in the post office, which opened at eight-thirty.
-
-
12:21
»
Cockpit Conversation
Now that it's determined that I will not be plunged into a B727 training course in the immediate future, and since it's becoming more probable that I will live out my days as a contract pilot, I think
-
-
12:09
»
Cockpit Conversation
The Pentagon (that's the "bombs and missiles Pentagon, not the demon-summoning sort," as I remember having to clarify seven years over a poor intercom, when I was told that it was on fire) wants aircr
-
-
23:20
»
Cockpit Conversation
Wendover is situated not only in a pocket between two sorts of restricted airspace, but r
-
7:05
»
Cockpit Conversation
In December 2003, the operations manager of a northern air charter company went to Trinidad & Tobago for a week on business. I'm not sure how a Caribbean island relates to the business of schleppi
-
-
18:57
»
Cockpit Conversation
I pick up my story back at Wendover Airport, which turns out to have an interesting history. During World War II this town was an air base with a population of as much as 20,000. Here is where the Eno
-
-
20:50
»
Cockpit Conversation
Oshkosh was a lot of different things. For the price of admission you could get your money's worth in many ways, each of which ignored the bulk of the event. And you really have to choose your own Air
-
-
20:02
»
Cockpit Conversation
On the third day we went out to the seaplane base where there was a field for amphib parking and then a couple rows of float planes anchored in a little lagoon. I expected there to be more but some ha
-
8:18
»
Cockpit Conversation
Wireless access at Oshkosh was very poor, and I haven't had the combination of time and internet access to blog lately. Give me a couple of days.
-
-
17:00
»
Cockpit Conversation
The EAA Airventure celebrates the fact that visitors come from all over the world. They have an international pavillion, which is just a big tent full of trestle tables and chairs, but it's staffed wi
-
-
22:37
»
Cockpit Conversation
A small two-man camping tent at Oshkosh is not the best place to spent a restful night. (Or as my friend put it: "that's not a two-man tent. A two girl tent, maybe!") I was thinking of doing a
-
10:58
»
Cockpit Conversation
Three different friends finally persuading me to come to Oshkosh. We took an airline flight to
Appleton, and as soon as we came off the runway we could tell something was up. We crossed a taxiway
