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Truth

Aviation Dictionary
Airspeed: Speed of an airplane. Deduct 25% when listening to a Navy pilot.

Bank: The folks who hold the lien on most pilots’ cars.
Cone of Confusion: An area about the size of New Jersey, located near the final approach beacon at an airport.
Crab: The squadron Ops Officer.
Dead Reckoning: You reckon correctly, or you are.
Engine Failure: A condition which occurs when all fuel tanks mysteriously become filled with air.
Firewall: Section of the aircraft specially designed to let heat and smoke enter the cockpit.
Glide Distance: Half the distance from the airplane to the nearest emergency landing field.
Hydroplane: An airplane designed to land on a 20,000 foot long wet runway.
IFR: A method of flying by needle and ripcord.
Lean Mixture: Nonalcoholic beer
Nanosecond: Time delay built into the stall warning system.
Parasitic Drag: A pilot who bums a ride and complains about the service.
Range: Usually about 30 miles beyond the point where all fuel tanks fill with air.
Rich Mixture: What you order at the other guy’s promotion party.
Roger: Used when you’re not sure what else to say.
Service Ceiling: Altitude at which cabin crews can serve drinks.
Spoilers: The Federal Aviation Administration.
Stall – Technique used to explain to the bank why you car payment is late.

H/T Bring the heat bring the stupid

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Hearding Cats

By this time last year we’d wrapped up filming the first season of Dangerous Flights  and had ten international ferry flights in the can.  This year due to the late decision in picking us for season two we have exactly zero.  OK, although the Malibu trip in Africa was a disaster they probably got enough film to make an episode so we’ve got that going for us.  The good news is that things are heating up with at least four flights getting ready to launch including my trip to Uruguay.  The bad news is that the filming for episode one of season two has been pushed back.  The plan was to get all the pilots from season one together at CB Aviation’s base in Ogden Utah for a reunion so we could drink beer and talk smart.  We were going to film next weekend and the production company spent a ton of time trying to get all eight pilots to arrange their schedules to allow then to all be in one place at one time.   Everything was in place and I was looking forward to the trip, I was even going to fly my Queen Air to Utah so as to make the grand entrance don’t you know, when we found out that one of the pilots couldn’t make it.  What a bummer, I was really looking forward to the trip but seeing that Super girl and I will be leaving on a long trip soon, and over Christmas time, it’s just as well that I have a little more time to spend at home before leaving for two or three weeks.

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New Zealand Mosquito rebuild pictures

The worlds only flying Mosquito.

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I’ve always loved the Mosquito and with a top speed of 408 mph, a 37,000 foot ceiling and the ability to carry a bomb load of up to 4000 lbs it was probably the most versatile aircraft of WWII.  The heavy bombers always get the credit for bombing Germany into submission but in my opinion allied air power would’ve been much more effective if they had scrapped the idea of high altitude bombing and instead focused of using fighter bombers like the Mosquito.  This opinion is backed up by a study done by the RAF after the war that concluded that the Mosquito was 4.95 times more cost effective than the Lancaster.  This is probably due to the fact that with a fighter bomber you don’t need to waste man power and resources defending them against enemy fighters.

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Warning Order

Well here we go!  I was informed yesterday that “Dangerous Flights”, the Discovery Channel TV show that I’m starring in, finally has a ferry flight for me.  They want me to fly an A-36 Beech Bonanza from Uruguay to North Carolina leaving sometime in the next few weeks.  I’m always  excited about an upcoming ferry flight but this one should be particularly fun for a number of reasons.  Number one; I’ve never been to Uruguay and I always love visiting a new countries and putting another black line on my “flown there” globe.  Number two; It’s a great time for a trip to the southern hemisphere because it’s really freaking cold here in Wisconsin this time of year and until there’s snow to ski on I’d rather be take a trip that brings me north along most of South America, across the equator and up to North Carolina,oh did I mention at least three stops in the Caribbean? Yea, nice.  Number three; I’ll get to stop in about eight different countries at Christmas time and I’m sure each city we stop in will be more beautifully decorated than the last.  Number four; My co-pilot for this trip is going to be my daughter “Super Girl”.  This will be SG’s first ferry flight and I couldn’t be more excited to be able to share this adventure with her.  This trip is going to be a long one and adding the filming on each end will make it longer but it’s going to be worth it.  I just hope we can get back home in time for Christmas.