Flight Training Posts

AirVenture Gateway Park: Portal to Drone Integration & Safety?
July 29, 2015

AirVenture Gateway Park: Portal to Drone Integration & Safety?

Framed by the diagonal street that connects the main gate of EAA AirVenture to the forums area is a triangle of land that over the years has proven to be a prism that spotlights a newest member of the aviation community before it mixes invisibly int…
AirVenture 2015, Jetwhine AND a Free Lunch?
July 13, 2015

AirVenture 2015, Jetwhine AND a Free Lunch?

Here’s Tom Poberezny scooting around AirVenture in Red One VW that his dad Paul made famous decades ago.Ed Note: We’ve had such a great response to the story that I’m sad to say we’ve run out of slots for lunch. Do send alon…
Delusions Impede Aviation Future
July 6, 2015

Delusions Impede Aviation Future

Airbus recently flew the first production version of its Voltair E-Fan 2.0, a two-seat electric airplane. The realization of this aviation technology is something we should all celebrate because it is another important step toward aviation’s f…
Brennand Airport Invests in Fun Flying
June 21, 2015

Brennand Airport Invests in Fun Flying

Needing an airplane fix on the Saturday before Father’s Day I wandered over to Brennand Airport (79C), 10 miles north of Oshkosh and 4 miles west of Neenah. It is today what small, nontowered airports used to be, fence free and focused on fun …
Commercial Drones Facing Pilot Shortage
June 7, 2015

Commercial Drones Facing Pilot Shortage

To learn more about commercial drone operations, I recently attended a 4-hour introductory course for pilots conducted by Vortex UAS. The thorough presentation covered everything from history to the current legal landscape. What I did  not expect wa…
Can Airports Help Revive the Aviation Industry?
May 4, 2015

Can Airports Help Revive the Aviation Industry?

Can Airports Help Revive the Aviation Industry?Dear Reader / Listeners — You now have the option to listen to The Aviation Minute podcast or just read the script of the show below. If you receive Jetwhine via e-mail, you can click here to listen a…
Biz Av Pilots Have Eaten Enough [Training] Cake
April 29, 2015

Biz Av Pilots Have Eaten Enough [Training] Cake

Publisher’s Note: Every once in awhile we receive a story that’s well enough written on a timely topic that we know we want to publish it after just the first read. Meet Kyle and Linda Reynolds from Flight Level Group. Kyle is a busines…
First-Person View: The Future of Flight
Jan. 25, 2015

First-Person View: The Future of Flight

 Simply put, first-person view (FPV) is a smart phone perspective of flight. It gives the person in command of a remotely piloted aircraft a real-time look at where it is going. And it is the future of flying because it provides what people wa…
Airmanship and the Fundamentals of Flight
Dec. 28, 2014

Airmanship and the Fundamentals of Flight

Sporty’s debut of its Cessna 172LITE Project has rightfully attracted the attention of a cannonball launched from the high dive at the deep end of the aviation pool. While most are paying attention to the splash made by the airplane’s re…
An Airline Career Query & No Good Answer
Dec. 7, 2014

An Airline Career Query & No Good Answer

Directed my way by a leader familiar with my connection to aviation, an Eagle Scout e-mailed me this question: “I want to become an airline pilot when I get older and I’d like to know where to start? What things can I do as a high schoo…
Drones in the News
Dec. 4, 2014

Drones in the News

Drones in the NewsWhen I was a kid my mom told me she could always tell when I was hiding something … “It shows all over your face,” she’d say.No one, not even me, believes drones this size are a threat. So what does this…
Seeing Where Bird Strikes are a Threat
Nov. 23, 2014

Seeing Where Bird Strikes are a Threat

Bird strikes are perhaps the greatest unappreciated risk pilots face. There are a number of reasons for this, but among the primary contenders is the fact that most strikes result in expensive airframe and powerplant repairs rather than catastrophic…
Droning on About UAS
Nov. 19, 2014

Droning on About UAS

Dear Reader / Listeners – You now have the option to listen to The Aviation Minute podcast or read the text below. If you receive Jetwhine via e-mail, you can click here to listen as well.At the risk of droning on about a topic my pals David…
Changing Aviation Interest & Participation
Nov. 9, 2014

Changing Aviation Interest & Participation

This past week the mailman delivered a reason to think about my unknown but rapidly approaching expiration date. Thanking me for my four decade membership tenure, EAA offered me a three-figure rebate if I bought a four-figure lifetime membership.T…
Chasing Ghosts at NAS Brunswick Maine
Oct. 1, 2014

Chasing Ghosts at NAS Brunswick Maine

On Monday, September 29, I completed a lifetime quest of visiting all 50 states by chasing ghosts at Brunswick Executive Airport (BXM), the former Naval Air Station Brunswick Maine. I chose it because my late father, a naval aviator, served here as …
Flying a Seaplane
Sept. 29, 2014

Flying a Seaplane

The classroom was a 150 hp PA-12 Super Cruiser on floatsHow many times during an airline pre-takeoff briefing have you heard the flight attendant say, “In the event of a water landing …”Trust me, there ain’t no such thing a…
Flying Car Variable Not Considered: Demand
Aug. 31, 2014

Flying Car Variable Not Considered: Demand

Over the past century dreamers have invested in their vision of a flying car. There’s a good catalog of them in a recent New York Time article, “Why We’re Not Driving the Friendly Skies.”Expanding on the article’s head…
AOPA’s 152 Reimagined
Aug. 7, 2014

AOPA’s 152 Reimagined

Note to the World’s Best Readers / Listeners – You now have the option to listen to the Aviation Minute podcast or read the text below. If you receive Jetwhine via e-mail, you can click here to listen as well. One obstacle to learning t…
Can This Reduce the Number of GA Accidents?
July 23, 2014

Can This Reduce the Number of GA Accidents?

If you receive Jetwhine via e-mail, click here to listen to the program.____________________________I was working on a couple of a stories related to the Malaysian Airlines tragedy over the weekend when an idea popped into my head. The Nall Repor…
Building a Positive Aviation Future
June 15, 2014

Building a Positive Aviation Future

At American airports these days is hard to find a good word from pilots about their aviation future. After covering the 57th Sonex Aircraft Builder’s Workshop at the company’s Oshkosh, Wisconsin, hangars it seems clear I’ve been lo…
Why Drones Really Worry Me as a Pilot
June 12, 2014

Why Drones Really Worry Me as a Pilot

First let’s talk a little reality … Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), or drones as most of us refer to them are coming … and they’re coming soon. That’s not necessarily all bad though. Drones can operate in places that are…
The Aviation Minute: A Few Memorial Day Thoughts
May 26, 2014

The Aviation Minute: A Few Memorial Day Thoughts

Memorial Day here in the United States is one of the days we remember all the men and women who served and perished in armed conflicts around the world since our own Civil War in the mid-1800s.The stories emerging about how poorly we treat these me…
Is Airline Withdrawal a GA Opportunity?
May 18, 2014

Is Airline Withdrawal a GA Opportunity?

A recent New York Times story, “Air Travel Economics Make Midsize Hubs Unprofitable“, explained why airline travel today often demands long drives to the nearest major airline hub. This withdrawal of service from outlying communities and…
Diary of a New Flight Instructor
May 12, 2014

Diary of a New Flight Instructor

I like hanging around with other flight instructors. Not only do they understand how an airplane flies, but they also know the intricacies of those dark corners of a flight envelope … things that can lead a new pilot down a rabbit hole of trou…