Betcha every one of we old airplane pilots have more than one story about air-traffic controllers—the Federal Aviation employees in the airport tower. The people who radio you when and where to take-off and land. Already wrote about the Abilene tower controller whose radio stopped a two-engine commercial airplane from taxiing into our Maxine beginning her solo flight. A few years later from the same control tower, a rookie controller got confused. Some thirty private
Category: Hanger Flying
Simulators
If you bought an airline ticket recently, you should be pleased to know “this is your Captain” required to train often in a flight simulator. To keep up to snuff, the pilot must ‘fly’ from a computerized replica of his cockpit with video showing results of his choices. Simulated emergency decisions often confront the pilot. Invited to fly two military jet simulators, this old single-engine, high-wing pilot created his own problems. At the airbase outside
Grandma’s First Flight
Grandmother Nelise Elam was 79 years old when I flew from Chicago to Knox in Northern Indiana and took her up for her first airplane ride. She lived across the street from the grass runway where I landed in 1960. The runway has since been replaced with a shopping center and modern school buildings. A paved Knox airfield now lies outside town. I had flown my Cessna 182 there to visit relatives after Maxine and
Volcano
An essay–okay, really I’m just writing a blog–entitled Been There suggests I might have been there. At this writing there’s a volcano erupting 30 thousand feet in the air on St. Vincent Island, Windward Caribbean Islands. Been there. Sometime in the last century we were flying from Puerto Rico in a charter twin Beech. My five crew and I were going sailing for a week in a 40-foot sloop we had chartered. Don’t remember any
Historic Winter
Fog rose on the lake in Heath, outside Dallas, this Sunday Valentine’s morning. Reminded me of Weatherman C. E. Sitchler. “Stitch” ran the weather bureau located at the Abilene Airport. We private, single-engine pilots hung out there waiting for the fog to lift. Especially we Visual Flight Rule (VHF) amateurs who weren’t trained to fly ‘blind’ using instruments. That morning I wanted to fly to New Orleans. Then navigate on to Key West. Where Maxine
Pilot Dreams
My old Austin lawyer keeps his white cane firmly on the ground. George Covington now walks the streets of Alpine, Texas. He also writes a column for the local newspaper. Covington’s recent writing talks about dreams brought on by the pandemic. More people than ever are reporting dreams that reflect their anxiety and the stress of radical social changes. Airline captain and novel author Tom Young, who joined a Chapel Hill parachute club and jumped
Carb Heat
This old, retired pilot still remembers the sound of only rushing air when the single engine on my high-wing airplane ‘iced up.’ Usually happened when you got temperature change because you changed altitudes. And I remember where…. Ruidoso, New Mexico. Passenger A.R. (Red) Elam, my Dad. Cool morning. Took off early in morning. Approaching sixth hole of golf course, pulled on carb heat lever to increase power, rise above hole with limp flag in cup.
Tailwind, You Win
You can bet your anemometer (altitude measurement gauge) that we old, timid pilots –no old, bold pilots they say–read about the airliner that flew 801 miles per hour. Thanks to a powerful tailwind. Republic Airlines Captain Tom Young said the fastest speed his airliner ever flew was 600 mph. Again, thanks to a tailwind. Tom was a North Carolina University student of this old, private pilot. I became a professor long after I logged 1,600
When Mama Flew Solo
Drop in on any hanger flying session and somebody is probably retelling their first solo flight when the instructor steps out of the plane and says, “Fly around the field twice and then come in.” The mother of four wrote that her heart started palpitating. Slightly “rattled” she turned onto the wrong taxi strip, a mistake similar to driving the wrong way on a one-way street. She called the airport tower and asked permission to
Prettiest Airport
If you know a friend who flew, or flies, a private airplane there’s a high probability your amateur flying friend can tell you a harrowing flying story. Private pilots wait for the weather to improve before they roll their single-engine, small planes from the hangar. If more than one pilot waits, they gather and tell stories about their flying exploits. Such a gab session pilots call “hangar flying”. Here’s one example: My sports photographer friend