Peter Garrison How wonderful it is to have an incoming president who is, by his own admission, a leading, if not the leading, world authority on most subjects. The guidance he once tweeted regarding the excessive complexity of aeroplanes should be taken to heart by every pilot, passenger, and engineRead More →
Who should have been blamed for that 737 debacle? The cover story in the New York Times Magazine on September 22, 2018 was entitled, “What Really Brought Down the Boeing 737 MAX?” The writer, William Langewiesche, son of the sainted author of Stick and Rudder, is an experienced pilot andRead More →
Peter Garrison There may still be something to say about it. A few years ago, a sightseeing flight crashed in the Swiss Alps, killing all 20 aboard. The Junkers Ju-52 was attempting to cross a 10,000-foot saddle from south to north. The wind was out of the north, gusting toRead More →
Jean-Claude was in the left seat. He was senior to me, but I was flying. We were near the Equator, where Mermoz and Guillaumet – salut, old comrades! – had once flown. But they, poor fellows, had not been at 35,000 feet! We entered the clouds at what looked likeRead More →
In 1945, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, precursor of NASA and source of much of our knowledge about practical aerodynamics, published a hefty compendium of aerofoil data, NACA Technical Report 824, which later appeared in book form under the title Theory of Wing Sections. The names of the authors,Read More →
Peter Garrison Someone once suggested that if you want to know how you would feel crossing an ocean in a single-engine aeroplane, you should just fly out to sea for a couple of hours and then turn around and come back. There’s something about being out of sight of landRead More →
After 20 years of flying my second homebuilt, preceded by 9 years in my first, I wish I could say that most things that can go wrong already have; but the gods might think me insolent. At this point, however, I can at least say what has worked and whatRead More →
Peter Garrison I graduated from college in 1965. The Vietnam War was in full swing, and any able-bodied male who was not being educated was being drafted. I could have gone to graduate school, but instead decided to take my chances. I moved in with a couple of old friendsRead More →
Peter Garrison I take a miserly pleasure in finding big expensive books on sale at desperately low prices. A bookstore near me, another victim of Amazon, closed recently, disposing of most of its inventory, during its final weeks, at progressively more drastic discounts. I had admired one book in aRead More →
Guy Leitch How the FAA is Fixing Recreational Flying We often forget that South Africa still has some world class institutions that make our country a much better place than that supposed paragon of excellence – the USA. The American banking system is archaic compared to South Africa and ourRead More →
