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Ugh. That sounds unappealing. Personally, I love the idea of being involved in SAR operations, but playing with the image-chasing weekend warrior type doesn't really appeal to me. I'm a career LE guy, and I see enough of the wanna-be bad asses in my line of work. Don't get me wrong, I have...

I recently came back after a much longer break, and I'll tell you that bad weather has followed me around ever since I got back into flying. I think I've cancelled more flights than I've flown in the past 6 months! But, it's winter now, and winter always seems to bring screwy weather and...

I recently came back from a 12+ year break. I wasn't a high-time pilot to begin with, and I think the instructor signed me off with a BFR of 5.7 hours, and 2 hours of ground. He would have signed me off with less, but I asked for a bit more. For one, I started flying in a different region...

Frankly, what I think you're missing is the reality of an actual life and death situation, versus the calm and controlled simulated engine failures that folks experience in practice. Practice is important, to be sure, but the real thing is a whole lot more stressful. It's easy to play the...

Towers have humans working in them, too, and humans can make mistakes. When I was working on my instrument rating (maybe 15 years ago) I received a "call the tower" instruction from a particularly salty controller who worked at our home field. I was flying with an instructor that day, and for...

Great! I'll just let my bosses know that you said it's okay… and then I'm sure they'll be okay if I'm there. Come on, it doesn't work like that in some industries. Sure, if I owned my own business I could probably make some arrangements (for a cost) as you described above. I'm in law...

Oh… I see what you did there. Trees can be logged! :) These questions of logbook entries always give me headaches. Sometimes the question has an easy answer, other times the waters are murky. I only fly for fun at this stage in my life, but I still want to do things the right way.

Doh. The new husband of my wife's aunt (whatever that makes him to me) is big on conspiracy theories. He's still arguing with me about the idea of "Chemtrails" from airliners. For those of you who aren't familiar with this ridiculous idea, it basically goes that airliners are spraying mind...

That's exactly my problem. I've been wanting to go to OSH for many years now, but it's a time of year that is very tough to get vacation time in my industry, and I'd want to be able to have enough time to enjoy myself. It will happen one of these years, but it would be a heck of a lot easier...

That's really too bad… a loss for the aviation and law enforcement community.

Done!

I have to admit that I actually wasn't aware of that particular program. But, as I said before, I've been amazed at the advancements in battery/electric technology in the past decade. Though I probably would have claimed that a practical general aviation electric airplane was impossible if you...

Yeah, I think IFR skills are more perishable than most flying skills. I'm instrument rated, and came back to flying after taking a number of years off following the acquisition of my instrument rating. I only fly VFR right now, and will freely admit that I'd need some real practice to get back...

I was thinking the same thing… at this point ATC just wants him to go away :mad2:

I'm not sure that this electric aircraft motor technology is truly viable today, but the concept would have been largely unimaginable just 20 years ago. Perhaps this is little more than a proof of concept design? In another ten years, who knows… it just might work! After all, I currently...

I was raised in Ohio. I remember the college days when we could still go to Canada to drink without even needing passports (drinking age was 19 up there), and the border crossing conversation wasn't much more involved than talking to someone at a toll booth on the turnpike.

Glad the pilot made it out… airplanes are replaceable, people aren't. Still, I'd love to have an M20J, as I've always drooled over the performance of those aircraft. Guess I'd pass on this particular plane ;)

I think this is a valid question, but one that never really occurred to me when I was first getting into aviation myself. The fact is, though all pilots are certified as competent by the FAA, plenty of pilots die each year… often as the result of poor decision making. Obviously it's hard...

I once had an instructor who liked to complete run-ups on taxi. Personally, that seems like a lot to do while moving on the airport surface. Personal opinion: if the 3 minutes that it takes me to run-up on the pad will cost me too much money, I probably didn't have enough to fly that day anyway.

A pro in the field that I know once told me: "you date your cameras and marry your lenses." Good lenses are expensive, but they make a difference!