Now don’t get me wrong, I assign no blame to anybody who’s been in a near-hit incident, you can take every precaution, and it can still happen. But that’s no reason to be fatalistic. There are lots of things you can do. But let me backtrack a bit. Once, long long ago, when I was [...]
I’ve been asked this many times. To try and make the story interesting I’ll write in the form of a modern thriller; with flashbacks, disjointed time-line and internal monologues. Tweet. He stared at the screen. Another pilot, consoled. Another family now enjoying the luxuries of aviation. He sighed. Still more pilots come. Tweet. Aaaaarghhh!! We’re [...]
Last time we talked about what not to do. This week we’ll look more carefully at what it is that persuades passengers to go flying. The key word here is of course confidence. Passengers (yes even children) know when you are confident and when you are nervous. To get your confidence levels high, practise the [...]
Is That Supposed to be Flashing? TV celebrities like Jeremy Clarkson refer to light aircraft as Flying Washing machines. It gives the public the wrong impression and generally they don’t have the right impression anyway. You’ve been flying for too long to realise but your passengers, especially the new ones are full of questions and [...]
Ever ditched an aircraft at sea? The wisdom is that you should land tail low and land parallel to the major swell. It’s covered in AIM 6-3-3, But this doesn’t cover what happens after the ‘landing’. In preparation for crossing that mighty stretch of water the English channel (which nonetheless is really cold – and [...]
My wife has always been reluctant to fly. I’ve always wanted to take her and the kids with me. Finally it seems we have got there and become a flying family, but it wasn’t a fast process. There are many things you can do to persuade your nearest and dearest into the air with you, [...]
I’ve talked about how not to do passenger briefings in the past (See HTGYFF 5), but now let’s look at differing requirements of the two aviation authorities in the UK and the USA. In the UK in the ANO Article 53 we have the requirements laid out. Section (1) says “…reasonable steps…” to (1)(a) “before [...]
Forty Seven miles from the UK and only eight miles off the coast of Normandy, Alderney is three and a half miles long and one and a half miles wide. The population of around 2400 lives mostly in the single town of St Annes. Seafood abounds and the annual seafood festival is well worth a [...]
Alderney Seafood Festival: 10 – 20 May 2007 The annual Alderney Seafood Festival takes place from 10 to 20 May and is the island’s biggest culinary event, with Alderney’s chefs working extra hard to create exciting new recipes for the 10 day celebration of seafood. The finest mouth watering dishes are prepared and served in [...]
To show how the views of the passenger and pilot are vastly different we present here a journey to Bembridge from the point of view of both. The Pilot I don’t like last minute changes! I like to plan things ahead of time. That way there are fewer surpises. But guess what! Even carefully developed [...]
