Business Aviation Posts

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 …

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 you’d be wo…

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 attendance …

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…

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 this today …

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…

America’s first reusable spacecraft is almost 30 years old and it is time to put these tired old machines where they belong … in a museum. Despite my love of that bright golden plume of fire behind every orbiter at takeoff, and a thundering rumble …

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 they n…

The lesson Northwest Airlines management seems to have just re-learned is that no carrier can staff enough pilots to cope with flight-canceling job actions when cockpit crews think they’ve been wronged. Crew shortages at Northwest have forced hundre…

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…

AirVenture is so much different than Paris. You can actually get close to the new machines in Oshkosh, which is just what I did this morning when Cessna officially unveiled the new Cessna 162 Skycatcher, the airplane giant’s new entry in the Light S…

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 asks you…

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 …