Jetwhine

Flying Club May Resuscitate Flying Career

Jetwhine — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:00:44 GMT

CLEAR! TV doctors bark this sharp-elbowed warning before they shock a restive heart back to a regular rhythm. It is also the warning pilots issue to bystanders before they energize an airplane’s air processer. Seemingly disassociated warnings, several...(read more)

Jetwhine Tries to Out-Cranky the Cranky Flier

Jetwhine — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:26:55 GMT

I’m made quite a career out of whining about the aviation industry, but even I need someone’s shoulder to moan on every so often. As I sit here in a hotel room in Bordeaux trying to get back to the states from France using an American/Iberia...(read more)

Signs of New Aviation Era are Unmistakable

Jetwhine — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:30:14 GMT

From aviation’s infancy, the US military has been a leading source of aerial innovations and educator of those who put those winged aviation innovations to work. With the end of each conflict, pilots, technicians, and engineers used their training and...(read more)

Will Aviation Biofuel be New Farm Subsidy?

Jetwhine — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:00:20 GMT

First thing last Monday morning I read that US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was scheduled to hold an hour-long meeting with aviation officials from Boeing, Honeywell, and United Airlines later that day at Boeing HQ. The announced agenda...(read more)

Aviation: It’s ALWAYS About The Passengers

Jetwhine — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:51:31 GMT

Last Saturday was not a good day for transportation, but for once the bad news was not about aviation. An immense cruise ship — the Costa Concordia — capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off the west coast of Italy where rocks near the shore...(read more)

Will Army Drones Spark Interservice Rivalry?

Jetwhine — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:00:19 GMT

Wandering through a Google collection of aviation news, Combat Aviation Brigade Welcomes a New Unit, New Aircraft , grabbed my attention. I’m a dedicated rotorhead, helicopters comprise the majority of the US Army’s fleet, and I was hoping to learn about...(read more)

A Monkey in Our Subscription Works

Jetwhine — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:04:41 GMT

A college professor of mind told me a story years ago — OK … MANY years ago — about how solving one problem often creates another. Boy … did our switch from Feedburner to Mail Chimp subscriber software — not to mention my...(read more)

Our Monkey Speaks About Your Jetwhine Subscription

Jetwhine — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:00:34 GMT

In case today’s title has you wondering, don’t worry. We haven’t decided to farm our content production out to a cheap, new labor source. In 5 and a half years of writing Jetwhine, the world has continued to evolve around us although...(read more)

VOR Days Numbered in FAA Proposal

Jetwhine — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:00:12 GMT

In a general sense, I knew that NextGen would be the end of the VORs that have reliably led aviators for decades. But 10 days before Christmas, the retirement of these familiar white cones is much more real. That’s when the FAA published its request for...(read more)

Looking Bach at the Joy of Simple Flight

Jetwhine — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:00:34 GMT

An old-school reader, annually I must winnow my collected ink-on-paper titles to make shelf room for Christmas newcomers. As they have for decades, the works of Richard Bach survive every purge. Like many others, I met Richard through the pages of Jonathan...(read more)

Pitch & Power and the Margin of Error

Jetwhine — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 18:18:40 GMT

A recent issue of AOPA’s Flight School Business included this story: FAA Updates CFI Renewal Clinic Guidelines . It referenced the updated advisory circular that covers FIRCs and noted that the FAA added angle of attack (AoA) to the list of core subjects...(read more)

Commercial Curiosity Reveals High-Flying Volunteer Space Program

Jetwhine — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 04:00:44 GMT

Curiosity often costs me a lot of sleep. Tonight I saw that TV commercial about the guys who captured some cool, outer space video using a weather balloon. So Google and I went looking for them. I found JP Aerospace . I don’t know if they did the commercial...(read more)

AA Pilots: Bankruptcy is YOUR Fault

Jetwhine — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:18:14 GMT

From Paris – There’s no small amount of irony that AMR, parent of American Airlines and American Eagle, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection – a move certain to save the carrier millions over the next few years – only a day before 2,000,000...(read more)

Unmanned & Automated Aircraft: Are We Getting Too Smart for Our Own Good?

Jetwhine — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:15:55 GMT

Serving the military in Afghanistan According to the The Daily Planet , the blog of Air & Space Smithsonian, in November troops in Afghanistan will likely be resupplied by the K-Max, an automated cargo helicopter. The video is from a test earlier...(read more)

Boeing Flight Test Engineers Get Creative

Jetwhine — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:00:21 GMT

Test pilots and flight test engineers are an amazing and interesting group of people. But they are deadly serious about their work because focus and attention to detail preserves not only their lives, but those who go aloft in the aircraft they are testing...(read more)