Archive for 2011
Jetwhine is sponsored in part by a grant from Cessna Aircraft Company
By Scott Spangler on September 7th, 2011 | Comments Off on Celebrate a Century of Aviation Achievement
To appreciate what we have—and how far we’ve come, now is the time to celebrate the centennials of aviation’s many achievements. In the process, we might attract some new participants, which is surely aviation’s more pressing concern as it marches into its second century. It sure seems to be working for the US Navy and […]
Posted in Airports, Aviation Marketing, Blogging, General
By Robert Mark on September 5th, 2011 | 24 Comments »
In our house when I was a kid, Labor Day was always a big celebration. My father retired at age 65 from life as a union plasterer, a profession few people can even define today. My grandfather on my mom’s side, John Kikulski, was one of the first presidents of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union […]
Posted in Air Traffic Control, Airlines, Aviation Marketing, Blogging, Business Aviation, The Buzz
By Scott Spangler on August 26th, 2011 | 9 Comments »
Given its more than half century of tradition unimpeded by progress, I’ve always been cynical about the future of general aviation and its life’s blood, the flight training industry that educates new pilots. Then I attended the next-to-last regional meeting of the AOPA Flight Training Student Retention Initiative (FTSRI), held August 23 at the Hilton […]
Posted in Airports, Aviation Marketing, Blogging, FAA, Flight Training
By Scott Spangler on August 19th, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Throughout its life, now 75 years and counting, millions of words have been written about the iconic DC-3/C-47/R4D/Dakota. I’ve written some of them, and read most of them. So I cracked the cover on Together We Fly: Voices from the DC-3 with some trepidation. At best I expected to read stories I already knew told […]
Posted in Airlines, Airports, Blogging, FAA, General, Military
By Scott Spangler on August 17th, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Surprises are delightful, especially when they reveal innovative and economical ways aviation solves a problem in a unique way. The latest example is the maneuverable kite Paul Garber (yeah, that one, the father of the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum) designed during World War II to train shipboard anti-aircraft gunners. Rather than a dangly tail […]
Posted in Aviation Marketing, Blogging, General, Military
By Robert Mark on August 15th, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Few folks I know in the aviation industry doubt the value of social media for making the industry more … well, social. Mike Miley and Rod Rakic at MyTransponder.com have developed an entire Facebook-like enterprise around the entire concept of making our industry more social, in fact. It’s something we sorely need by the way. […]
Posted in Aviation Marketing, Blogging, Business Aviation, Flight Training, The Buzz
By Scott Spangler on August 10th, 2011 | Comments Off on Online Publishing Gives Air Facts New Life
At AirVenture a friend asked if I’d seen the new Air Facts. What new Air Facts? All I knew about were the Air Facts videos Richard Collins produced with Sporty’s Pilot Shop that grew out of the eponymous print publication Leighton Collins launched in 1938. (Collins sold Air Facts in 1973, and changes made by […]
Posted in Airports, Aviation Marketing, Blogging, General
By Robert Mark on August 4th, 2011 | Comments Off on GE Aviation: A Little Brand Fun
Although most of my AirVenture 2011 time was spent getting the Wittman Airport social media presence up and running at, I did leave a little time for some of the more offbeat kinds of fun to be had around the show. This year’s award for the Best of Show for Computer Geeks – especially since […]
Posted in Air Traffic Control, Airlines, Airports, Aviation Marketing, Blogging, Business Aviation, Flight Training, Jetwhine Podcast, Podcast, The Buzz
By Scott Spangler on August 2nd, 2011 | 9 Comments »
Sitting on the front porch with my battered feet bared to a healing breeze, I celebrated the end of my 34th EAA AirVenture Oshkosh marathon. Delivering my second round of rehydration elixir, my wife joined me. Having made the trek herself, she knows that the seemingly countless waypoints of things to see and learn are […]
Posted in Air Traffic Control, Aviation Marketing, Blogging, Business Aviation, FAA, General, Light sport aircraft, sport aviation
By Scott Spangler on July 27th, 2011 | Comments Off on Helicopters Make Their Mark at AirVenture
Performing missions no other aircraft can accomplish, helicopters are a vital part of the aviation industry. But they are a minority among flying machines, so their presence is often overshadowed by their fixed-wing peers, especially when they gather in numbers, as they do every year at EAA AirVenture. But the rotorheads made their presence known […]
Posted in Airports, Blogging, Business Aviation, Flight Training, General, Military