Archive for December, 2011

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Looking Bach at the Joy of Simple Flight

By Scott Spangler on December 19th, 2011 | 3 Comments »

An old-school reader, annually I must winnow my collected ink-on-paper titles to make shelf room for Christmas newcomers. As they have for decades, the works of Richard Bach survive every purge. Like many others, I met Richard through the pages of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a Christmas present from my parents in 1972. He articulated a [...]

Pitch & Power and the Margin of Error

By Scott Spangler on December 10th, 2011 | 3 Comments »

A recent issue of AOPA’s Flight School Business included this story: FAA Updates CFI Renewal Clinic Guidelines. It referenced the updated advisory circular that covers FIRCs and noted that the FAA added angle of attack (AoA) to the list of core subjects the renewal clinic must address. That should be interesting because angle of attack [...]

Commercial Curiosity Reveals High-Flying Volunteer Space Program

By Scott Spangler on December 5th, 2011 | No Comments »

Curiosity often costs me a lot of sleep. Tonight I saw that TV commercial about the guys who captured some cool, outer space video using a weather balloon. So Google and I went looking for them. I found JP Aerospace. I don’t know if they did the commercial, but the volunteer-based, do-it-yourself space program offered [...]