FAA Posts

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…

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 com…

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…

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 ou…

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…

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…

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 thunde…

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…

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, helpless…

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…

As an author, I pay pretty close attention to discussions about copyright and royalties. And aviation industry folks should be very afraid too since the Feds at the U.S. Copyright Office’s Copyright Royalty Board are trying to sink Internet Ra…

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…

When Joe LePore and Jan Paladino — the two U.S. Legacy pilots, where released from house arrest in Brazil late last year, everyone wondered if they’d ever be called back to testify. And let’s face it, we’ve all wondered what we&#…

In all the years I’ve been regularly flying airplanes above 10,000 feet, I’ve never experienced high-altitude/hypoxia training beyond reading the section of the Flight Training Handbook and hearing a few lectures about the dangers of wha…

What a difference a letter makes.In yet another dose of infinite wisdom, the FAA recently transformed millions of dollars worth of avionics into window boxes when it released the updated “A” version of AC 90-100. The Advisory Circular…

All this time I thought it was my problem for not understanding the ins and outs of the airline world that have wreaked such havoc on aviation. I never seemed to stop shaking my head every time I read the next chapter from the Northwest or Delta or …

This story would actually be funny if it weren’t such a sad reminder of miserable state of air traffic control in Brazil.When Pope Benedict left Brazil on Sunday aboard an Alitalia flight, he wanted to send one final good will message to his …