Greetings, This year has flown by faster than most, pun intended. March seemed like it was about 18 years ago, but at the same time seems like yesterday. While this year’s aviation gatherings were definitely not what event planners, organizers, vendors, and attendees had in mind, this year gave rise to grassroots events. Though not nearly as grandiose as Sun ‘n’ Fun
  On the last few flights, I haven’t seen many bugs on the airplane. In fact, last week’s flight didn’t produce a single bug on the windshield, it’s amazing. Apparently, fall must be trying to arrive because when the early morning flights end, it’s still comfortable out, and except for the wind the other weekend, flying has been smooth and very comfortable. I
  Greetings fellow pilots, Monsoon Season! Fire Season! Monsoon Season! Fire Season! It’s a classic argument, or so it seems. Monsoons dictate that we need to fly earlier in the day. Fires dictate where we can, or more accurately, can’t fly. Let’s focus on fire season first. This is a banner year for some abnormally large fires. Many of these fires are near the busiest
  Talk about a long, hot summer… this has really been one to remember. Fortunately, with the coming of September, perhaps we will start to see the temperatures begin to come down. I don’t particularly care to have to get up well before dawn to go flying so it can be halfway tolerable. The type of flying I now do has undergone some rather significant changes. Because of
  Greetings fellow pilots, Walking outside at 6 in the morning to 95 degree heat tells me we're definitely in the "heat" of summer. I'm not quite as eager to run down to the airport and head up in the sky as in the cooler months. While I'm a big proponent of a complete preflight briefing and virtual walkthrough on the charts with weather in normal conditions, I spend
  Given the constraints of the virus pandemic and the long, hot summer, it seems like the normal aviation meetings have come to a screeching halt. The realization that many aviation things really are coming to a halt was the cancelation of the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, this year. This venue has been a yearly summer vacation event for many of us to meet up
Greetings, As I sit back and look in amazement at the curveballs 2020 has thrown at us, I realize that almost every facet of life has been impacted by political, social, or health concerns. And that's just since January! Of course, aviation has been impacted in a huge way that has yet to be completely understood. Shutdowns of ATC towers and facilities simply wasn't something
  It is getting hotter and my patience is growing shorter with this whole pandemic situation, especially with the video conference and teleconference meetings. I hope someone comes up with something soon, so we can get back closer to what was normal. The present virus situation has resulted in some rather interesting occurrences. I recently saw an article explaining that
  Because of the virus pandemic we are going through, it looks like this is again going to be a rather brief report from a news standpoint. It seems like everything is still in somewhat of a standby mode. There are a few aviation meetings that are becoming somewhat active again by going to virtual meetings on the web. These type of meetings are good, but they certainly
Greetings, We’re close. As Arizona moves forward with reopening the state and businesses respond by springing back to life, we look forward to burning 100LL and spending time with fellow aviators. After all, this is one of the main reasons we fly. As much as I’ve dry run emergency procedures in my head, flipped through the FAR/AIM (not a terribly dry read, by the way), and