In Flight USA Article Categories
In Flight USA Articles
Fourth of July at Planes of Fame
Fourth of July celebrations at the Planes of Fame Museum begin July 3.
Tomorrow at Dixie Wing Warbird Museum
A virtual CAF Dixie Wing Warbird Museum will be webcast live at 4 p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 24
Free Admissions at Planes of Fame
Chino Planes of Flame Museum will fly the Boeing PT-17 Stearman!
Tomorrow at Planes of Fame
This Saturday Education Director Brian Finnegan will talk about the Boeing PT-17 Stearman and pilot Pete Blood will climb aboard for a flight over the Museum.
Update from Planes of Fame
The Planes of Fame ‘Outdoor Experience’ starts Saturday, May 30, 2020! Over an acre will be available for visitors to stretch their legs and enjoy viewing our historic aircraft.
Increasing Your Advertised Message
Advertising is a great way to gain business from future pilots and those who mentor them. This is a great strategy for long-term return on investment.
Forced Cancellation of AirVenture
The continuing uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 has forced organizers of the world’s largest fly-in convention, EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2020, to cancel
Safe Landings: Re-Sourcing Crew Management
NBAA Notes Newest Round of Concerns Raised Over ATC Privatization Bill
GAMA Welcomes New Era of GA Development With Final CS-23 Rule
China General Aviation Business Conference March 25-31
Statement on the Aviation Innovation, Reform, and Reauthorization Act
NATA Will Not Support “Leap of Faith” FAA Reauthorization Proposal
EAA Proposes ADS-B Solution for Light-Sport Aircraft
Faster Than a Speeding Bullet
By Donia Moore
From Here to…
The Colonel and Betty Jo. (Courtesy of Don Kindred)On Dec. 5, 1941, Colonel Robert E. Thacker, or “The Colonel,” as friends and admirers know him, was ordered to fly a new B17 E bomber from Seattle to his home base in Salt Lake City. A pilot in the Army Air Corps, the El Centro native had flown many aircraft, but never in the pilot seat of a B17. His commanding officer brushed that aside. In addition, the navigator assigned to his crew was so recently graduated that he still wore his cadet uniform. He was younger and less experienced than the Colonel. They took off on a cold, crisp, star-studded night flight over the southwest to test their skills before heading to Salt Lake and ended up in Tucson overnight due to snowy weather conditions.
The top general in the Army, General George Marshall woke them unexpectedly the next morning. With no warning or explanation, he ordered them to attach themselves to a flying convoy of 13 other bombers headed to the Philippines via Hawaii. None of the planes were armed. The Colonel called Betty Jo, then his wife of nine months, to tell her of his change of orders. The crew didn’t even have time to pick up their cars or their laundry before they had to leave. Betty Jo and a girl friend drove all night through the deep snow of Donner Pass, from their home in Salt Lake City to Hamilton Field, 20 miles north of San Francisco. When the military wouldn’t let her on the base, she cried until they gave in. After dinner with him at the Officer’s Club, she watched him taxi out to the runway, not knowing when she would see him again. He flashed his landing lights at her during takeoff to say goodbye.
Remote Runways: Missionary Aviation from a Pilot’s Perspective
By Yayeri van Baarsen
Where they fly, there is often no go-around, extremely sloped landing strips consist of nothing more than dirt road, and runways might double as the town’s main street. Meet the hardcore heroes of jungle flying: bush pilots.
Joe Hopkins with the Shell Plaza Plane and oil derrick in the background. (Courtesy Joe Hopkins)Papua New Guinea, Honduras, and the Philippines are just three of the more than 40 countries Joe Hopkins, founder of Mission Safety International, has flown in. With decades of experience, he has also trained many other pilots in jungle and bush flying, where morning dew can make the already short landing strips as slippery as ice, and the sudden drop off in the ravine might be only a couple of hundred feet away.
“I’ve landed in humid areas in Honduras where when putting on the brakes, it felt like I was speeding up. Pumping the brakes and having crosshatched tires helps, but the most consequential instrument is a pilot’s state of mind and good judgment,” Joe said. Pre-planning and keeping contact with the missionary in the village about the state of the runway are also of vital importance. “If there’s just one inch of standing water, it’ll be all over your windshields, obscuring your vision, but you can probably still land relatively safely–I’ve done so. However, if the water is two to three inches deep, which looks the same from the air, there will be too much drag on the wheels, causing a tailwheel to easily tip over,” he explained. Being a missionary pilot is not for the fainthearted.
Flights of Mercy – Liga International
From Saddles to Cessnas, Liga International Flying Doctors of Mercy are Changing Lives
By Donia Moore
Pilot Volunteer Tim Murphy and friends. (Courtesy of Liga)A train trip through the dusty Sinaloa desert of Mexico gave birth to the idea, which became Liga (League) International (Flying Doctors of Mercy). When physician, Iner Sheld Ritchie, traveled to Mexico City from the U.S. to treat then-President Abelardo Rodriguez in the 1930s, he noticed great illness and suffering as he passed through the country of the Yaqui Indians, some of Mexico’s poorest residents. He discussed the situation with the President, who offered help. Dr. Ritchi’s idea grew during his three-month long “vacation” horseback trips into Sinaloa, Sonora, and Baja, California to treat his impoverished “patients.” Word of his healing expeditions went the rounds of his medical colleagues, and it wasn’t long before he had a cadre of physicians joining him to help. Liga was on its way.
Skydive
By V. Feyling
As I get suited up, I can feel my heart racing and the butterflies starting to flutter. To start off this New Year, my boyfriend and I decided to take an adrenaline jump of a lifetime. We hop in and I soon realize, there is no turning back–I’m going to jump out of this plane.
I can feel the forced smile on my face as my skydiving instructor, Sean, rotates the GoPro towards me and says, “You excited?”
All snug in this tiny little aircraft, I look out the window in fear, focusing on the absolutely stunning Santa Barbara horizon.
Editorial: Crisis of Confidence
By Ed Downs
The crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 has left the entire aviation community stunned and horrified. It is becoming increasingly clear that this terrible loss of life was not the result of an accident, but of murder. It is also being disclosed that the co-pilot who perpetrated this mass murder was mentally unstable, and that a large number of individuals knew that. How can such a thing happen?
First, and most importantly, the staff of In Flight USA extends our sympathies and prayers to the families and friends of those lost. Such words are appropriate, but we understand they are completely inadequate. We are so sorry. The entire aviation community is looking inward to see how such a tragedy can be avoided in the future. Sadly, this is not the first time a flight crew member has taken the lives of innocent passengers while trying to satisfy a raging desire to “get even” by ending their own lives and the lives of innocent others. Suicide remains a difficult problem in many societies, as medical experts try and figure out why it is that seemingly rational people having no connection to any form of “suicide culture” feel that taking their own life is somehow a solution to supposed unsolvable problems.
Buddypilots, Redefining General Aviation Management
Buddypilots is aweb platformfor pilots, aircraft owners andGeneralAviation organizations.Flying is an amazing passion. For some pilots, it’s an opportunity to see our world from a new perspective, for others, it is a convenient way to travel and discover distant destinations. However, one thing is common to every pilot and aircraft owner; the pain caused by the overwhelming amount of preflight and post flight tasks, regulation complexity coupled with the increasing price of aviation.
A company named Buddypilots Aviation aims to solve these issues altogether. The Montreal based company has regrouped an international team to develop a powerful web platform for General Aviation. Available anywhere at any time, Buddypilots platform offers integrated tools to pilots, aircraft owners (single owner or partner) and organizations (flight schools, FBOs and flying club).