Aviation People

BrightLine – Flight Bags for Pilots

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The BrightLine flight bag for pilots is clearly the most well thought out design for a flight bag. It absolutely reeks with creativity and innovation. The bag has seemingly dozens of zipper pockets, all of them with color-coded zipper pulls so you can instantly open the right pocket, assuming of course that you remember the colors. It has room for two headsets, but if you only want to carry one, half of the bag can be unzipped and left at home. So you could conceivable divide up the two half bags into one for IFR and one for VFR, or one for the stuff you need when flying at night versus in the day.

There are separate pockets for your sunglasses, a cell phone, a VFR radio, flashlights, a Leatherman tool, charts and more. Coincidentally, the charts pocket is the perfect size for my Apple iPad, which I generally carry instead of paper charts.

Rod Machado Video – New Books, eBooks and Audio CDs

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Rod Machado is well known to most pilots as an entertaining speaker and a prolific producer of aviation training books, ebooks and audio CDs. In this video interview, I asked Rod about what new products he was working on and he went into great detail on his future books and projects. Of course he couldn’t talk without injecting plenty of his trademark which made our time together even more enjoyable. I hope you enjoy my interview with author and National Aviation Safety Counselor Rod Machado.

Cessna’s First Lady Rose Pelton Talks about Learning to Fly in Her SkyCatcher

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Rose Pelton, wife of Cessna Aircraft CEO Jack Pelton is effervescent when she talks about getting a pilot certificate in her new Cessna 162 SkyCatcher. As she stood next to what was literally “her” aircraft on display at the Sebring LSA Expo, she explained to me the N450RP registration number on the aircraft. The RP portion was obviously her initials. The “450” she explained was “for my 50th birthday.”
Whether intended or not, Cessna has found the perfect spokeswoman in Rose. I can’t wait to hear more about her progress and I hope she motivates tens of thousands of people to start learning to fly. If you’re interested in learning to fly, download my free Learn to Fly ebook—which has a picture or Rose’s SkyCatcher on the cover—and then call a flight school to schedule your first lesson.

2010 National CFI of the Year and other GA Awards Recipients Named

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In each of the past 47 years, the General Aviation Awards program and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have recognized a small group of aviation professionals in the fields of flight instruction, aviation maintenance, avionics, and safety for their contributions to aviation, education, and flight safety. I’m proud to count two of the 2010 recipients as friends that I’ve known well for a number of years. Both richly deserve the recognition as I’m sure do all of the recipients. As the 2008 National CFI of the Year, I’m always interested in new GA Awards recipients. Recipients of this year’s national awards are Neil John Nederfield of Lafayette, New Jersey, Aviation Maintenance Technician (AMT) of the Year; Kirk Harold Peterson of Larimore, North Dakota, Avionics Technician of the Year; MCFI Jeffery Robert “Jeff” Moss of Los Angeles, California, Certificated Flight Instructor (CFI) of the Year; and MCFI Thomas Paul “Tom” Turner of Rose Hill, Kansas, FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year.

General Aviation Making a Difference in Haiti Disaster Relief Effort: How You Can Help

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Three million Haitians were affected by last week's earthquake, but in the aftermath successes are measured one life at a time. This evening I was present when Missionary Flights International (MFI) President Dick Snook took a call by satellite phone notifying him that 27 orphans had just boarded an MFI plane in Port-au-Prince and would … Read more

Fun Time Lapse Video: Reassembling a Cessna 182RG

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Here is a really fun time-lapse video of a Cessna 182RG aircraft being reassembled after its landing gear was damaged in an accident. It’s composed of several thousand photos taken over several weeks and assembled into a short two minute video. Although there is no sound on this video, I think you’ll find that it is really fun to watch.

Book Review: Highest Duty – Captain Sully Sullenberger, American Hero

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Not surprisingly, the Sully I met in person is identical to the man that America has seen interviewed on radio and television. He’s a tall, distinguished looking gentleman who appears confident and professional. Initially a quiet man by nature, he’s gotten used to being the public face for aviation and interacting with the public. When we met, I thanked him for becoming the co-chairman, along with his first officer Jeff Skiles, for the EAA’s Young Eagles program.

Flying Drunk—A True Story of Redemption

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Watching Michael Vick on a 60 Minutes video yesterday reminded me of how few stories of redemption exist about felons who’ve spent time in Federal prison. Generally they are the pariahs of society who can never get more than a minimum wage job and eventually end up back in prison. Once convicted, society puts felons … Read more