Jetwhine Podcast Posts

  There’s More to Flight Instructing Than Simply Logging Hours No individual can enhance aviation safety as much as a flight instructor. Here’s why I’ve held my flight instructor certificate for more than 50 years. Afte…

I wonder if you remember what you were doing back in November 2006? Here’s a quick refresher of some of the top stories. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were getting hitched. The first hearings were taking place on The Hill to find a replacement for Se…

The 2026 Singapore Airshow About this time of the year, journalists from around the globe pack a couple of bags and head for Singapore to attend the annual international air show. I’ve actually never made it to Singapore and I won’t this…

Listen to this show Between a Rock and a Hard Spot: Demands on air traffic controllers I’ve lost track of how many government shutdowns I’ve experienced during my life. Some under Democrat presidents, others under Republicans. During a shutdown, a s…

NTSB News Talk logo A few months ago, my buddy Max Trescott and I realized we were speaking to each other three or four times a week about recent aircraft accidents. We’ve both been flying for more than 50 years and have both hold multiple CFI…

Ed note: While this story is a bit dated, the winter-flying lessons are not. Inexperience, stupidity, get-home-itis — take your pick. Any of them applied to me one late November evening as I cruised Just east of Chicago’s Loop with an electric night…

Bell 47 Do you remember your first flight? I know I do. That image of a 12-year-old me climbing into the right seat of an old Bell 47 helicopter at Greater Rockford Airport in 1963 is indelibly etched into my brain. I even remember the pi…

AirVenture 2021 is really happening next week in Oshkosh beginning July 26 and the pent-up demand for aviation excitement/geeky experiences is expected to run high. Each year – except 2020 of course – the show attracts tens of thousands …

by Micah Engber, contributor (Listen to the audio) In some ways, I’m very fortunate. Some of you know this from listening to my ramblings as I muse along on The Airplane Geeks Podcast. Sometimes it might be on The Airline Pilot Guy, or with Pl…

Click above to Listen – Run time 4:27 (Podcast Text) I think it was Mark Twain who cynically spoke about “Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics” to explain how easily lists of numbers can be manipulated to tell some pretty extraordinary…

Like one of Chicago’s other major aerospace companies, Boeing, the town’s hometown airline has had more than its own share of problems, in addition to those gnawing customer service problems that plague the airline. Certainly, many of t…

Funny how another person can make you think differently about something you thought you already understood. For me it’s my time in the military, the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s to be precise. When Jetwhine contributor Micah Engber mentioned a …

An Aviation Minute Editorial by Rob Mark Years ago when I was still flying for a living, I remember seeing a cool little yellow sticker slapped on the side of another pilot’s Jepp bag. “If it ain’t Boeing, we’re not going.&#…

Md Nor Yusof, chairman of Malaysian Airline System Bhd., right, told reporters on March 25, 2014 that Flight 370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean with no survivors. The search for wreckage was suspended. (Photographer: Goh Seng Chong/Bloomberg © 2…

Fathers, Sons and Airplanes, by Micah Engber The New Year comes twice a year for me. Of course there’s this time of year, the first day of January for the year we all know. But there’s also first day of Tishrei, the Jewish New Year calle…

By Micah Engber Recently there has been much discussion about windowless passenger aircraft becoming the wave of the future. Based on the direction society is now moving I’m sure it’ll become a reality at some point. I also suspect that …

A Unique Around-the-World Journey Heads East As you read this story, Mason Andrews should be winging his way eastward out of Italy toward Croatia while sitting in the left seat of his dad’s Piper Lance (a link to the full podcast is at the bot…

By Micah Engber Al Bean. I just liked saying the name when I was a kid. It was a cool name, sounded like he would be a cool guy, what a neat name for an astronaut, for the fourth person to ever set foot on the moon. If it weren’t for that coo…

Favorite Flights I Never Flew, by Micah Engber, contributor The mid to late 1980’s were the heyday of Frequent Flyer Programs. Since deregulation, the advent of low-cost airlines a-la People Express and Southwest, the mainline carriers were se…

The DC-3, a C-47 “Gooney Bird” when it’s dressed up for the military, conjures intense memories for me, like when my parents bought me an airline ticket to fly back from school in Champaign IL to Chicago one Thanksgiving. That Ozar…

Bruce McCandless, the Astronaut In the Iconic Photo, by Micah Engber Listen to the episode or read it below When you think about the first space walk maybe you think about Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov who in March 1965 was the first man to ever leave th…

Veterans Day as a Time to Reflect Funny how another person can make you think differently about something you thought you already understood. For me it’s my time in the military, the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s to be precise. When Jetwhine con…

Micah (R) with his pop Father’s Day is special to me for a couple of reasons. My own dad is gone, but of course I’m a father myself so it seems like the idea’s certainly living on in our family. But my talented buddy Micah &…

I was really starting to like the FAA the past few years, what with the Part 23 rewrite and passage if 3rd Class Medical reform. I saw them as more of a kinder, gentler agency … more let’s all work together for the greater good and that …