Airports 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 –…

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 aviatio…

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 L…

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…

One of the really annoying problems inherent in writing books like my recently published McGraw Hill volume – a Professional Pilot Career Guide – designed to answer every imaginable question about landing the best flying job since I knew…

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’ve just returned from the first international aviation blogger conference held in a luxurious downtown Chicago hotel overlooking Lake Michigan, not far from where Mayor Daley destroyed Meigs Field (CGX) just a few years ago.Conference atten…

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…

Today’s an anniversary of sorts.It was just over 30 years ago today that I told a student named Jeff something that kept him from becoming an accident statistic. It didn’t seem like such a big deal then, but it does now.Looking back on…

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 practic…

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, wh…

Now that American Airlines announced they’ll be testing an on-board Wi-Fi Internet service with AirCell beginning next year, can on-board cell phone usage be far behind? Imagine the fun as we all get to listen in on one more person who thinks …

At the Paris Airshow and it’s counterpart in Farnborough England, the emphasis is clear … which company can announce more commercial airplane deals than another. That’s not bad by any means. But all aviation experiences are not cre…

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…

One of the cool parts about flying a jet airplane is being pushed into the back of your seat when you shove the throttles to the firewall. And yes, I know, jets don’t really have firewalls. The second most ego-boosting event comes when ATC as…

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…

A week sure flies when you’re having fun. I just returned from the Paris Airshow where among other things, I had an opportunity to fly Dassault’s new Falcon 7X. More on that later.If you’ve never been to Paris, you might be thinki…

It really pains me to say something good about United Airlines when I look back at the history of lousy service I’ve had from them over the years, from canceled flights, to unexplained delays for mechanicals.  Probably too, it’s the indi…

Since it’s a beautiful spring afternoon in Chicago – sunny, temperatures in the high 70s (around 25 for you Celsius folks) it seemed like the right time to blog a bit about a piece of aviation that’s not quite as serious as the FAA…

When I was asked a few months ago to run a workshop about airport marketing and new media for the Texas Aviation Conference in Corpus Christi I was pretty excited. The Texas Department of Transportation folks put on a great event and have always mad…

When the City of Chicago’s Department of Aviation destroyed Meigs Field in the middle of the night a few years ago, it transformed KCGX into a poster child for the failure of both pro and anti-airport groups to work together successfully. With…

It was a quiet Sunday afternoon today in Chicagoland as the city  struggled to make that final leap from Winter to Spring. I was out walking the new dog when I heard what sounded like a small airplane about to connect with some serious trouble.The …

There is nothing worse than flying into busy terminal airspace when the weather is bad and the pilots are feeling like they’re four or five minutes behind the airplane. The captain’s and first officer’s hands are moving furiously a…