Air Traffic Control Posts

The only thing I find surprising about the revelation that NASA has been sitting on a mountain of aviation safety data is that anyone is even remotely surprised about the way that agency operates. OK, maybe the fact that NASA sat on the data – 24,00…

John Carr’s blog – the Main Bang – posted an interesting piece the other day. He looked at pay scales for entry level controllers and found they will actually be paid less than janitors in Santa Clara County. But people still seem to be signing up f…

I’ve been really touched by how many regular readers noticed that Jetwhine just turned one. A year ago I had dinner with a buddy in Wichita who seriously questioned why I was trying to blend a little new media talk with the rest of the aviation worl…

I heard an interesting interview on NPR last week with Richard Hurd from Cornell University. He said the use of labor strikes across the U.S. has declined by 90 percent since the 1970s. When Hurd began to focus on the Reagan Era, I expected to hear …

If I had to list things I would never have expected to see on Google Earth – the snappy video mapping software service run by the online giant – a flight simulator would probably be pretty high on the list. As you’ll read about at Bobbie Sullivan’s …

An airline pilot career has a few more thorns sticking out of it these days. Pay scales are down, duty days are longer, schedules stink and passengers are easily riled. But even with all that said, I still think it makes for a pretty incredible care…

News last week from the White House that even George Bush has finally run out of excuses to avoid admitting the U.S. aviation system is in need of serious reform should actually not come as much of a shock. The Business Travel Coalition’s chairman K…

I gave a talk this week about airports at the NBAA Convention in Atlanta and I used Chicago Meigs Field as an example of how people can rally to save an endangered field the way Steve Whitney and the Friends of Meigs did to save the “Coolest Little …

If you click on this link, you’ll find yourself sitting smack dab in front of a FlightAware screen all tuned up to Day Jet’s online identity. This gives you the tools to follow all DayJet trips in near real time. Personally, I hope these guys just k…

Those Aviation Alliance Across America folks are at it again. They seem to think that industry types will take time out of their valuable day just to pick up the phone and punch in 866-908-5898 and be automatically connected to their members of Cong…

Just before FAA administrator turned off the lights to her office at 800 Independence Avenue last week, USA Today ran a story about a possible conflict of interest between Blakey, the FAA and the fat $1.8 billion contract awarded AIA member company …

Most people counted PATCO out years ago. PATCO was the union that represented air traffic controllers during the infamous 1981 strike that cost 12,000 PATCO members their jobs. But PATCO never really disappeared. It just shrank to become a tiny inde…

I was thinking about blogging as I tend to do these days with the first anniversary of Jetwhine approaching. What makes blogging valuable to those of us in the aviation industry is the direct link we offer between the writer and the reader, somethin…

After the Koz Convention drew hundreds of political pundits to Chicago for a weekend’s blogging about the U.S. political climate last month, the Daily Koz, Markos Moulitsas’ blog of political intrigue and corruption, ran a piece about our favorite F…

Today is Labor Day here in the states, a national holiday devoted to the men and women on the front lines, people responsible for building the industrial infrastructure of the U.S. economy.                                                           L…

I was reading a flyer that the editors at Professional Pilot magazine sent out recently asking reader opinions about the qualities needed to succeed as a professional pilot.  Now the battle begins … stick and rudder skills, versus more practical wea…

Was it Karma that Bob Richards called me yesterday right after I happen to catch a rerun of John Cusack’s excellent portrayal of an air traffic controller in “Pushing Tin?” Maybe. He called to see if I’d read his new book, which I had to admit I had…

In a recent speech before a large group of teachers from around the nation, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey was waxing poetic about the importance of building solid educational foundations for our kids, a topic I actually she and I happen to agree. …

When John Carr told me he had 3,000 election votes – more than anyone else – I thought he was kidding. He was referring to the poll run by AvWeb asking for replacement recommendations for outgoing FAA administrator Marion Blakey (and yes, Blakey has…

Just after another Brazilian aviation tragedy snuffed out the lives of 200 people in Sao Paulo Tuesday night comes word from the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Association that airports there should be built with better Runway Safety Ar…

In advance of this week’s final report from the Brazilian House of Representatives about last year’s midair over the Amazon rainforest, Brazilian Representative, Marco Maia, author of the commission report, let it slip that the collision occurred be…

I was reading a superb story in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune by Jon Hilkevitch about the chaotic state of the airline industry from the passenger perspective. You can’t possibly read it and not come away feeling a sense of hopeless, helplessness on the …

Jethwhine’s man in Brazil, Marcelo Alves, said today´s edition of Folha de S. Paulo reported an important leak from the Brazilian Air Force investigation into last fall’s midair between a Gol Airlines Boeing 737 and a U.S. registered Embraer Legacy…

Oh what fun it is thinking of more interesting ways to get these brand new books out into the world. But this time, a free copy of a Professional Pilot Career Guide will be headed to the first person who guesses the name of the airport where this ne…