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Air Force to Recall 1000 Retired Pilots
The Air Force has a pilot problem. It doesn't have enough. The service says that the problem is reaching "crisis" levels with a current shortage of 1500 pilots. Having exhausted all means to convince...
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Will Computers Learn to Fly Well Enough Before Pilots Forget How?
In my job, I get to fly with all different kinds of cats and dogs. And by cats and dogs, I don't mean the ubiquitous emotional support animals now being carried by passengers, but rather pilots. The...
View ArticleImportant Information from the TSA!!
Airport Full Body Scan Status ReportFinally, some useful factsare coming out about all of those airport full body scans!FULL BODY SCANS AT AIRPORTSTSA disclosed the followingAirport Screening...
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When Choosing an Airline, Choose Wisely!
It should not be news to anyone working as a pilot that the airlines are hiring. With many thousands of pilots retiring in the next decade, the major airlines need to hire thousands of pilots just to...
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Do I Talk Too Much? A Primer on Airline PA Announcements
The chapter in Tom Wolfe's novel, The Right Stuff, which introduces us to Chuck Yeager, starts with this vignette:Anyone who travels very much on airlines in the United States soon gets to know the...
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Will the Air Force Ever Get Their New Tanker Aircraft?
KC-46 [Official USAF illustration]The Air Force has been trying to replace their aging KC-135 tanker aircraft...for decades. There is a replacement aircraft, the KC-46, which is nearly ready to go, but...
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Boeing 737 MAX 8 Pilot Report
The Boeing 737 first flew in 1967 and since then has become the world's best selling airliner with Boeing just recently delivering the 10,000th 737 to Southwest Airlines. Major updates and enhancements...
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The Dominoes Fall: Goodbye Great Lakes Airlines
Photo - Quintin Soloviev Great Lakes Airlines, a regional airline serving the upper midwest part of the US has shut down operations as of last week.In a statement released, the management of the...
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Air Force Reserve Adds New Commitment for Pilots and Maintainers
U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Shane A. CuomoThe Air Force Reserve just added an additional six month commitment for pilots and maintainers who wish to separate or retire.While being careful to not...
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The Deadly Flaw Hiding in Self Driving Cars and Pilotless Airplanes (Hint:...
Photo: Timtempleton CC BY-SA 4.0A common theme on this blog has been about the promise—and pitfalls, of automation in aviation. Pilotless airplanes have been trumpeted simultaneously as the final nail...
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Is the Airline Hub History?
Photo - Eric Salard CC BY-SA 2.0A reader sent me this article from the Daily Beast (good God, man! What are you reading that for?) which foresees the denouement of the airline hub due to the arrival of...
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How Fast are We Really Going?
Airspeed is Life!One of the most common questions we get asked by passengers is how fast we're going. Usually it is asked about takeoff or landing as it is easy to find out how fast we're going at...
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The Lion Air Crash: What You Need to Know
Lion Air B737 MAX 8 (Wikimedia Commons)On October 29 of this year, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea 11 minutes after departing Jakarta for Pangkal Pinang with the loss of all 189 souls on...
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What Do You Want from an Airline Career as a Pilot?
I'm getting to the end of my airline career. Oh, I'm not quite there yet, but I am close to the final turn and the PAPIs will soon be in sight. The FAA mandated retirement age is currently 65, and I'll...
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It Shouldn't Have Flown
By Steven W. Freimuth, former Captain, USAFPROLOGUEThe following is my recollection of the events that occurred during a takeoff and flight on a September day in 1973 while flying out of U-Tapao Royal...
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Is the Boeing 737 Max 8 Safe?
737 Max 8This past Sunday, an Ethiopian Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa to Nairobi with 157 passengers and crew. There were no survivors. This is the second...
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What's Next for the Max?
As an aviation blogger, the past few days have been simultaneously hope inspiring and depressing. Hope inspiring as many people understand, or make a good faith attempt to understand, the underlying...
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Flight Data Results from Ethiopia 302 and the MCAS System - Smoking Gun or...
737 MAX throttle quadrant showing trim wheel and stab trim cutout switches (lower right).The Wall Street Journal is reporting that, after preliminary analysis of flight data from the downed Ethiopian...
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737 MAX Update
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.enI haven't written about the saga of the MAX lately because there hasn't been much change in the situation concerning the grounded airliner. Progress...
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Did Bad Grammar Doom the Max?
As of this writing, the 737 MAX remains grounded with projected return dates now stretching into the first quarter of 2020. Boeing has not as of yet submitted the software fix for the controversial...
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Chemtrails: A Little Truth Goes a Long Way
Proof of chemtrail's existence [Source: the internet]Running a modest (~3600 follower) aviation themed Facebook page for the past four years has been quite an education in human online behavior. I have...
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Dispatch from the Front: Flying in a Pandemic
Yesterday I finished my eighth day of flying out of the past eleven, and to say it's been a bit crazy would be an understatement. The travel industry, having endured the lost decade of the 2000s...
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Pilot Report: 737 MAX Return to Service Simulator Ride
It has been nearly two years since the 737 MAX was grounded in the aftermath of several crashes. After the redesign of a flight control system, the aircraft has been re-certified by the US FAA and EU...
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The Lost Christmas Trees of the Strategic Air Command
The Strategic Air Command (SAC) was a major command within the US Air Force from its inception in the aftermath of World War II until it was disbanded at the end of the Cold War. SAC was charged with...
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Aviation vs 5G Telecoms: Bring Popcorn for this Food Fight
There has been a fair amount of ink spilt documenting the battle between the aviation and telecom industries over the issue of 5G deployment and the threat of electronic interference with aviation...
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