There is an aviation joke: What makes an airplane fly? And the person being asked (usually a student pilot) tosses out all sorts of correct answers about airfoils, the Bernoulli effect, lift, and so on. The joke answer is: Money. I think I’ll try to limit my discussion of aviation and finances to...

After a lot of consideration, more than a bit of wrangling with an outfit that sells Diamond aircraft, and an absurd amount of time on the phone with a CPA and a tax consultant, I have a plane that is available at Santa Monica Airport, my home base. It is almost too complicated a situation for me...

You could probably fill an album with photos of Colin and me flying that look much like this. You may think we were posing for the camera, but this is a candid shot with our customary in-flight expression, taken by a passenger sitting on the cowling. I am not sure which plane this is, but I suspect...

Pat Hernandez and I attended a scientific meeting in Orlando and capped it with an amazing trip to the keys to visit my aunt and uncle. We rented a 172SP out of Kissimee. The check out ride with Sunstate Aviation was easy and fun and the planes were in great shape. Pat and I headed to Everglades...

We only had the plane for ten days when we decided to take a family trip up to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. My parents were out at Catalina Island and after lunch I ran some groceries out to them. Then we picked the boys up from elementary school and zipped down to the airport.

Okay, I know I said the whole book review thing was a dead loss for me, but here is another. The best book I have read since learning to fly is volume one in Barry Schiff's proficient pilot series. This is a link to the whole boxed set, a set I now think is invaluable. The book reads like a series...

Here are two happy fellows headed into the sunset after a very nice trip to Las Vegas. I went to Long Beach and flew a DA-40 up to Colin at SMO. The landing was perfectly acceptable considering it was my first attempt at getting a DA40 on the ground since my fifth week of training. Colin jumped in...

What am I doing blogging? I should be writing a grant. I should be flying. Anything but blogging. Worse, I am writing a book review. I never saw the point of Colin's, but here I am with one myself. I have not flown in two weeks. I have been reading though. Barry Schiff's books on piloting are...

Well, it is long past bedtime but I am still flying around in my mind so I will jot down a few quick thoughts on the recent trip to Catalina with Colin. I rented a 172 at South Bay Aviation. Turns out they should not have rented it to me but that is another story. I flew the mini-route to Santa...

Yosemite was rainy, which was a surprise. That is, it wasn’t predicted. That made me a little nervous about what might be happening down in Fresno. We stayed an extra night up in Fish Camp because it was so beautiful in the woods on the edge of the park, and then drove our rental car back to the...