Blog Posts

So tell me how you really feel!Believe it or not, I didn’t buy everything that came from 800 Independence hook line and sinker, any more than I would totally believe something I hear from 1325 Massachusetts Avenue 100 percent.I simply publis…

As the Comedic Cuban troubadour Ricky Ricardo would often say to Lucille Ball, “it looks to me like someone has some splaining to do.”For months I’ve been sitting here defending the air traffic controller workforce against FAAR…

Following close on the heels of Scott’s Monday post about a serious lack of stick and rudder skills comes this video of a BAE 146 landing at London City Airport.  Attaching the word “hard,” to the word “landing” he…

Talking recently with Michael Maya Charles, author of Artful Flying, our conversation turned a pilot’s passion for flight, for deft stick-and-rudder skills. Why, we wondered, does a pilot’s ardor wane from the student high as flight hour…

I apologize if what I’m about to say causes anyone to cough up their lunch, but I’m going to completely agree with something that former FAA Administrator and now current Aerospace Industries CEO Marion Blakey said a few months ago. Yes,…

If you’ve been a regular Jetwhine reader, you know we seldom cover breaking news.Today is an exception for a number of reasons.Just a few minutes after Cessna’s vice president of marketing Tom Aniello briefed his sales force with the j…

By Scott Spangler – scott@jetwhine.comLearning that Green Flight International had made its first jet flight powered by bio fuel in October 2007 shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. After all, turbines were all the rage when I was g…

Do you know this fellow?Scott Spangler and I recently met for the first time at a Starbucks in Oshkosh, land of each summer’s AirVenture . Although this was our first meeting in person, Scott and I have corresponded by letter, e-mail and phon…

We’ve all been following a truly interesting flying story the past few days here at Jetwhine, simply because a 6,500 NM flight in a Cessna 400 – most of it out over the open waters of the Pacific – is hardly routine. Ferry pilot Ga…

We’ve all been talking about the looming pilot shortage – as well as a shortage of aviation mechanics. Some airlines have already begun feeling the pinch as the requirements for future cockpit members have begun to plummet in a simple su…

Hello Jetwhine readers. Today we’re going to light up those little capillaries inside your cranium. You all think you’re so smart don’t you? Well, here’s your chance to prove how much you know about aviation, general aviation…

As you read this, the ugly weather should have departed California headed east and Garry Mitchell should be taking off for another day’s flying. Mitchell’s office is often a bit of a moving target, so this week he’ll spend most of …

People who fly airplanes for a living often share some of the same ailments in their older years found among other workers who also operate obnoxious moving machinery … jack hammers, high-speed riveting machines, drag racers.My wife and daugh…

For those readers who may not follow everything aviation all the time, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was taken to task a few months ago for suppressing huge amounts of safety data related to the aviation industry.The info…

First I can tell you that I don’t have any idea what the Sam Hill happened in London the other day when the crew of that British Airways Boeing 777 crashed their airplane on the end of the runway during landing. There are plenty of rumors flyi…

Another editor for a world-famous aviation magazine told me not long ago that he actually read my Jetwhine piece about the classic airline menus from a few decades back. Actually I think they harkened back to another lifetime in this industry.Besid…

To most people, the word deal implies something too good to miss … think, “Let’s Make a Deal,” or “No Big Deal.”But in aviation, and air traffic control specifically, a deal is an ugly gremlin of a phrase that im…

Knowing when to call for help is a critical element in learning to fly, in fact, it’s pretty darned important for survival in life as well. In an emergency, most people often don’t have the mental and sometimes the physical skills to se…

I remember early on in the computer revolution when laptops first moved to the forefront of mobile computing.They were much heavier than today’s models, but they certainly made connecting on the road a valuable option for many of us road war…

A Piper Navajo Chieftain crashed just after takeoff Saturday into the icy waters off Kodiak Island Airport about 250 miles southwest of Anchorage. Initial reports indicate the left nose baggage door on the aircraft opened up right after liftoff. Six…

I was having a luncheon chat a few weeks ago with a lady pilot from Wichita when she mentioned she owned a Cessna 170 – that’s an airplane with the extra wheel on the wrong end of the airplane to some. When I realized she was a serious t…

You have to love the fact that the GOP supports business, even if it is mostly the Fortune 100s. The Minneapolis Star Tribune today reported that the Grand Old Party announced Northwest Airlines as their choice to be the official airline for this s…

Did you see the note last week from the United branch of the Air Line Pilots Association? United pilots didn’t want to take the heat for the huge round of delays and flight cancellations that good old UAL dropped on passengers around the syste…

A friend in DC just e-mailed this update to the Jetwhine news room.From the wastelands of New Mexico comes the news – no, Eclipse is fine, for now.This is certain to become THE news story of 2007, from the same state that brought you preside…