Contrails

When comfort becomes a life or death issue

Even when everything seems to be going fine, is it really?

11:50 a.m. Wind nearly straight down the runway, from 150 at 25, gusting to 31. Visibility, 10 miles. Eight vehicles, a mix of sedans and pickup trucks each driven by a man alone, park scattered along the observation area at Hector International Field, the airport in Fargo, North Dakota. Most are pulled up close to […]

Waypoint names are FUNNY things

Breakfast, it would seem, is the preferred way to celebrate the Fourth of July in these parts. The firemen put on an annual pancake feast in town, as do the folks who run the local airfield. We call them airfields because, in the beginning, that’s exactly what they were. Not runways, but weedy fields about […]

It was a desolate and alien place, looking more like a photo from Mars than any place that could be on this Earth. The vista stretched for miles in every direction, a rock-strewn blanket of baking, undulating tan, brown and bone white scree. As desolate as this vista was, so too appeared the lives of […]

Curt Brickman is 57 years old. When I meet him, he’s wearing jeans, hiking shoes and a dark blue jacket. His cap says “Cold War Veteran.” He wears an Army pin in his lapel and sunglasses over his prescription glasses. Ten years in the service, he tells me. Here, I think, is a guy who’s […]

Human pilots think they’re great flyers. They should check out what ravens can do.

For Hans

“A moment changes everything.” Lyrics by David Gray