http://www.flightlab.net/blog Aerobatics, Aerodynamics, Airmanship Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:45:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I’ve owned six airplanes in the past twenty years. I’ve also owned some six cars in roughly the same period of time. Thinking back on airplanes versus cars, it strikes me that there’s a curious difference. Apart from a revelatory spinout on black ice in New Hampshire one winter, I ... http://www.flightlab.net/blog/2008/02/27/aircraft-for-sale-flightlab-atlantic-flyer-march-2008/ I got my CFII back in 1992. Harry Bradley, an instructor at Hanscom Field, in Bedford, Massachusetts, took me through it. Harry is a venerated institution at Hanscom, having gotten a lot of return customers up the ratings ladder. He’d probably be interested to know that, despite my undying admiration ... http://www.flightlab.net/blog/2008/01/13/getting-current-maybe-flightlab-atlantic-flyer-february-2008/ Here’s what I do when I’m working out the weather for a cross-country. Until recently, I relied on CSC DUATS and the AOPA web site, but I’ve started using the NOAA National Weather Service site, www.weather.gov, as well—both for long-range forecasts and for specific information the day of the flight. ... http://www.flightlab.net/blog/2007/12/14/weather-omniscience-flightlab-atlantic-flyer-january-2008/ We looped last month, and contended with the usual errors. We should roll this month, and try out a new set of mistakes. Usually, pilots learn the simple “aileron roll” first; then learn the additional inputs necessary to transform the aileron roll into a “slow roll,” which is in ... http://www.flightlab.net/blog/2007/11/16/rolling-flightlab-atlantic-flyer-december-2007/ I went a few months without posting my columns from the Atlantic Flyer. So here's to catching up. http://www.flightlab.net/blog/2007/10/26/38/ You’d think that an aerobatic maneuver as apparently straightforward as a loop would be a cinch to perform: Dive for speed, haul back on the stick, and then be patient until the world appears more or less as it was before. That’s certainly the core idea, but it’s not by ... http://www.flightlab.net/blog/2007/10/26/roundness-flightlab-atlantic-flyer-november-2007/ Tonya Hodson has just become my go-to person whenever I need someone dumped from an airplane. I should clarify this: I mean the memorial dispersion of a loved one’s ashes, not the sudden disappearance of a business partner. Unlike my male flying buddies, whose behavior is hard to predict, I ... http://www.flightlab.net/blog/2007/10/26/residue-flightlab-atlantic-flyer-october-2007/ I’m not finished complaining. Last month the gripe was airshow jingoism. (One email in support, one righteously aghast.) This time it’s the editorial overuse of the phrase “the dream of flight” and its related constructions. For example, the sentence “As a boy in Kansas, Edgar was seized by the dream ... http://www.flightlab.net/blog/2007/10/26/dreamers-flightlab-atlantic-flyer-september-2007/ I’ve never been to an airshow outside the United States, so I can only imagine what it might be like elsewhere on the planet. In the U.S., at least, major airshows tend to involve patriotic themes. This is especially the case at airbases or when there’s otherwise a strong military ... http://www.flightlab.net/blog/2007/10/26/red-white-and-blue-flightlab-atlantic-flyer-august-2007/ I keep promising not to tell flying stories, but the spirit is weak. This month I want to write about the aerobatic maneuver called the hammerhead, yet am drawn by strange alien forces to the subject of swimming pools. There’s a lot you can tell about the tenor of a ... http://www.flightlab.net/blog/2007/10/26/swimming-pools-flightlab-atlantic-flyer-july-2007/