Archive for 2011
Jetwhine is sponsored in part by a grant from Cessna Aircraft Company
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 […]
Posted in Airports, Aviation Marketing, Flight Training, General, Light sport aircraft
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 […]
Posted in Blogging, FAA, Flight Training
By Scott Spangler on December 5th, 2011 | Comments Off on Commercial Curiosity Reveals High-Flying Volunteer Space Program
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 […]
Posted in Aviation Marketing, Blogging, General, The Buzz
By Robert Mark on November 30th, 2011 | 10 Comments »
From Paris — There’s no small amount of irony that AMR, parent of American Airlines and American Eagle, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection – a move certain to save the carrier millions over the next few years – only a day before 2,000,000 million British public sector workers walked off the job to protest […]
Posted in Airlines, Airports, Aviation Marketing, Blogging, The Buzz
By Scott Spangler on November 28th, 2011 | 49 Comments »
Serving the military in Afghanistan According to the The Daily Planet, the blog of Air & Space Smithsonian, in November troops in Afghanistan will likely be resupplied by the K-Max, an automated cargo helicopter. The video is from a test earlier this year where the unmanned helo exceeded the Navy’s requirement to carry at least […]
Posted in Airlines, Airports, Aviation Marketing, Blogging, FAA, Military
By Scott Spangler on November 21st, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Test pilots and flight test engineers are an amazing and interesting group of people. But they are deadly serious about their work because focus and attention to detail preserves not only their lives, but those who go aloft in the aircraft they are testing. Some aspects of certification flight tests can be eternally boring. Tests […]
Posted in Airlines, Aviation Marketing, Blogging, FAA
By Robert Mark on November 13th, 2011 | 3 Comments »
By Douglas Boyd Ph.D One of every six adult Americans is afraid to fly according to the Journal of Travel Research. Frightened folks – who BTW cross all socio-economic lines – take 66% fewer commercial airline trips than those who enjoy time aloft. Interestingly, this heightened anxiety is despite an excellent airline safety record in […]
Posted in Airlines, Aviation Marketing, Blogging, Business Aviation, Flight Training, Light sport aircraft, The Buzz
By Scott Spangler on November 6th, 2011 | 6 Comments »
With her saucy style, Gail Collins is one of my favorite New York Times Op-Ed authors. This week she wrote about “The Best Perk in Politics.” Naturally, she’s talking about business jets and all the free rides Rick Perry took on them. After a fleeting aero-centric thought of how the industry would defend itself against […]
Posted in Airlines, Airports, Blogging, Business Aviation
By Robert Mark on November 2nd, 2011 | 13 Comments »
Editor Note: At least a couple of times each week, someone sends an unsolicited story trying to convince us to publish it. More often than not, the material simply doesn’t fit. It’s either too long, too sales focused or – as happened today in fact – completely inappropriate ( they wanted us to run a […]
Posted in Airports, Blogging, Business Aviation, Flight Training, sport aviation, The Buzz
By Scott Spangler on October 30th, 2011 | 4 Comments »
A fuel-efficient idea by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Now that I have your attention, the concept of fuel efficient formation flight for airliners is one of four areas covered in the United Kingdom’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers recently released report on aviation that asks an interesting question—Aero 2075: Flying Into a Bright Future? Focusing […]
Posted in Air Traffic Control, Airlines, Airports, Blogging, Business Aviation