Blog Archives
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Tenth Anniversary, No End In Sight
- Tuesday August 30, 2011Can it really be almost ten years since 9/11/01? Yep, and most people seem just as surprised as I, that yes, it has been that long. Our world has changed since then. Many stories of problems with passports, border crossings, arguments with officials and other events include the words, “Of course, that was before 9/11.†Personally, I remember getting into and back out of Bermuda once with no passport. But that was before 9/11. TSA boasts that it has thwarted 50 million threats at airports in ten years. A quick-witted participant in the online aviation forum, AVSIG, pointed out that this comes out to 13,699 thwarts per day, seven days a week. That’s a bunch of thwarts. Some of those thwarts I caused myself during the years... -
Somebody Paid Attention
- Wednesday August 17, 2011I used to joke about Congress, but not any more. If the last few weeks haven’t convinced me of anything else, they have convinced me that Congress is no laughing matter. It is too sad to be funny. After the debt reduction fiasco they all went home and left without extending the FAA authorization. This robbed the govmint itself of a fortune in uncollected per-leg taxes on the airlines. Somebody noticed all the ridicule and Obama came through with—guess what—another temporary authorization. Amazing! Of course I was furious before that. The debt reduction mess never did anything about debt reduction. Did you ever hear them talk about debt reduction? Hell, no—they argued about deficit reduction, deficit... -
A Special Pilot
- Monday August 1, 2011On a chilly day in early 2005 I visited Moontown Airport, outside of Huntsville, AL, on the day that Keavy (rhymes with levy) Nenninger got her private certificate. Moontown is one of those grass strips that is half airport and part social club, complete with a liars’ table that gets a lot of use. Keavy was sort of the airport’s little sister—young (19), bright, attractive, personable and bubblingly enthusiastic about flying. When I got to Moontown that day, Keavy was at another strip, taking her private checkride. Everyone else, it seemed, eagerly awaited news—had she passed or not? Keavy’s mother, Lisa Brunegraff, who had supported Keavy wholeheartedly with her flying lessons, financially and... -
Grinnin' Like An Idiot
- Monday July 18, 2011I am 10 years younger on this Monday morning, just because over the weekend I got a ride in a beautiful, double-winged, open cockpit, noisy, round-engined Stearman aircraft. The airplane belonged to Rick Mantei of J.P. Turner & Company. Rick graduated from the Air Force Academy, spent 25 years as a fighter pilot in the US Air Force and flew 34 combat missions in F-16s in the Gulf War. My friend Mike Williams, who works with Rick, arranged for my flight. It’s nice to have friends like Mike. J.P. Turner is in the investment business, and they invited several well-off senior citizens to fly, hoping they might all buy investments in the near future. I qualified as a senior citizen, but somehow failed to mention that I have all of my... -
Beware The Jabberwocky
- Monday July 4, 2011“Beware the Jabberwocky, my son,†warned Lewis Carroll. I have never even met a jabberwocky, much less had to beware one, but recently met a Jabiru, and saw nothing to beware. I know not what a Jabberwocky is, but a Jabiru is an Australian light sport aircraft (LSA), and a pretty one. When friend Julian asked if I wanted to go see a Jabiru airplane, I told him I’d heard of Jabiru engines, but not Jabiru aircraft. The engines were available in the USA before the airplanes, so for once my ignorance had some basis in fact. Jabiru says that 80% of flight training in Australia is done in Jabirus. The model we saw was the 250, which started life as a four-place airplane and was later turned into a LSA. It has a huge baggage... -
A Bad Week
- Monday June 20, 2011First, I thought it was a good week. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) announced that the Senate had voted to eliminate the govmint subsidy on ethanol. Evidently the vote crossed parties, with both donkeys and elephants voting to do away with the subsidy. It was claimed that this would save the govmint some $6 billion per year. I was elated. Was the govmint really getting serious about lowering the budget? Evidently not. Almost immediately after that announcement another announcement explained that the House had voted to continue the subsidy. Damn! We have had a subsidy on ethanol since 1978, as Part of the Energy Policy Act of 1978 (you do remember when the Energy Policy was gonna lessen our need for foreign oil, save us tons of money and... -
Flying A Piece Of History
- Monday June 6, 2011History lessons come from books, teachers and, every now and then, from touching a piece of ancient history. In 2002, I flew in a piece of history—a World War II, open-cockpit, Stearman biplane that was slow, noisy and absolutely beautiful. (Before I get too carried away, let me admit that I have never been checked out in a Stearman so flew that day with a CFI.) This particular Stearman was a bit of history in and of itself. During World War II, it was based in Tuskegee, AL, where it was used to train a group of people you just might have heard of—the famed group of black pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Several of the Tuskegee Airmen were still around when I worked for Montgomery Aviation. One of them, “Chief... -
Air France Black-Box Report
- Monday May 23, 2011Unless you have been living under a rock—or were sucked up by the Rapture—you surely know that the black boxes of the Air France flight that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean two years ago have been found. According to an email received from WSJ today, the report on the info thus derived will come out on Friday. This is a much-anticipated report. The report is vitally important to Air France, Airbus, engine manufacturers, air traffic controllers, avionics manufacturers, insurance companies, and a myriad of other parties too numerous to name. Lawyers around the world lie awake at night thinking about this report and praying that their companies, their clients, will not be found lacking. The ramifications of this report will be... -
Strange Things Are Happening
- Monday May 9, 2011Well, it has happened and it will happen. What has happened is that Southwest’s (SWA) buyout of AirTran closed last week. What will happen is that SWA will eventually be operating in/out of Atlanta (ATL). Everybody seems to be wondering how SWA will fit into the ATL hub. A better question might be how SWA will change ATL. Forget about the fact that SWA is known as a “discount†airline. What with rising fuel prices and other factors, the discount is no longer the major factor it was in previous decades. What is a factor—and a major factor at that—is that SWA treats people as if they appreciate them. SWA comes closer than any other airline I know to making airline travel fun again. (I understand that some... -
So What?
- Monday April 25, 2011The NLRB (National Labor Relation Board) is suing Boeing, and I’m mad as hell about it. The NLRB says that Boeing is opening a new plant to build the Dreamliner 787 in South Carolina, instead of the Seattle area, to retaliate against the IAMAW (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) for, among other things, “past strikes.†I say, so what? The key words here should be “collective bargaining.†The unions have a perfect right to bargain collectively. The unions’ greatest power in such bargaining is their right to strike collectively if the bargaining doesn’t go their way. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. But, dadgummit, if unions have a right to quit working...
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