Lessons Learned

Ferrying lab rabbits to Denver in a Piper Lance got a little hairy in the ’60s.

Memorable excursion to the Big Apple represents the best of airplane ownership and fatherhood.

Taking an impromptu media excursion with pilot Bob Hoover was a ‘thrill of a lifetime.’

If you’re like me, at some point in your pilot career, you may have asked yourself this: “Do I really need a weather briefing? The TAFs look like things will probably be fine. I’m not going that far. I’ll just get while the gettin’ is good, and I’ll be there before any bad weather moves […]

Ray Andrews, my flight instructor, turned to me and asked, “So, you think you’re ready to solo in front of your friends?” After my half-hour flight lesson of three takeoffs and landings, with my childhood friends Larry Leonard and Michael Rafferty watching from alongside the grassy airstrip, I was surprised by his question. I had […]

Last March, a Beechcraft Bonanza A36TC was in cruise flight at 15,000 feet on the way to the annual aviation celebration known as Sun ’n Fun in Lakeland, Florida, when the pilot noticed the engine power had dropped and the airplane began to slow. A check of the manifold pressure confirmed the turbocharger was no […]

By the summer of 1983, I had finished my junior year of ROTC, and our old neighborhood gang was reunited again. Larry Leonard and I roomed together our college freshman year at the Castilian dorm, where I met my future wife, Karin. Before starting our senior year, Larry and I moved into the same Austin […]

Oil line issues cause a pilot to have multiple emergency landings on one vacation.

The choice of fuel stops on a return trip from Oshkosh to British Columbia seemed to make sense, until it really didn’t.

Float planes, check lists, and gray-haired pilots