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In Flight USA Articles
Bid on Items to Improve Your Aviation Experience
The EAA Aviation Foundation July Online Auction raises funds to benefit EAA’s programs and support its mission to grow participation in aviation.
Spirit of Aviation Week is Next Week
Virtually visit hundreds of aviation-related companies and flight products at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh
Upcoming Spirit of Aviation Week
Highlights from across the world of flight will entertain and educate aviation enthusiasts on July 21-25 as part of the extensive schedule for EAA’s Spirit of Aviation Week.
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.