The Avian Fluke

“Go ahead and taxi over to Cutter.”
My face gets very still…I know what is about to happen and strangely, I’m not nervous about it, which does make me anxious because then I’m wondering if I’m overconfident. Larry tells me two takeoffs and landings with a taxi back, and a third which will return me to […]

The landings, up until today, have really been more like controlled crashes with no damage to occupants or airplane. You’ve gotta hand it to Cessna - they built the 152 like a tank. The problem is that if you fly in Texas, you fly in crosswinds, and flaring properly with crosswind correction is, according to […]

I went into today’s flight knowing that I was going to make that airplane my bitch. After last time, with the bad flying and the bad feelings that went with it afterward, I knew today was going to be different.
We had around a 13-knot wind 20 degrees off the runway gusting to 24 at times. […]

I keep telling myself that I’m new - that I’ve only got 3.7 hours logged. It’s okay. It’ll come.
About the only thing I did right today was the pre-flight and takeoff. Everything else fundamentally sucked.
I couldn’t get attitude of the plane adjusted right, I couldn’t get an airspeed nailed down. And today was the first […]

If you’ve ever met me, chances are flying, flight, or something with wings has somehow entered the conversation. I’m annoying like that.
I don’t know a pilot out there who didn’t want to fly from as early as he could remember. I think it’s a lot like being a musician - you wake up one morning […]