The flight with Andreas in the Porsche powered DR400 just served to remind me that I really want to FLY an airplane. The club rules (and common sense) prevented Andreas from allowing me much pilot in command time in the Robin. The flight sated my desire to see the world from the air but did little...

Nothing but clouds since I received my Private Pilot Certificate. My father-in-law is in town and I would like to take him flying. Astonishingly, my brother-in-law has said it would be okay to take my fourteen year old nephew up (he loves maps and flying over his neighborhood is going to be great)....

Directly after getting my license I left for a three week data collection trip to the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart. I thought perhaps I would look into getting a flight while I was away. Nothing pressing you understand, not like an addiction, just an understandable desire to observe...

On my way up to Paso Robles to take my flight test I decided to hold the Elph out the little window to circumvent the problem of shooting through scratched plexiglas. A piece of advice: hold very tightly to your camera if you try this. There is a good deal more wind than you might suppose and I...

It was a great flight up to Paso Robles. A little over two hours in the air. All the things that I love about flying. Dramatic paths cut through the clouds, an entirely different view of the way the weather lies on the land, a view all around the broad circular band of the horizon.

I passed. I now hold a Private Pilot certificate and the United States Government says that I can carry passengers in a small, single engine airplane which lands on terra firma (as opposed to the water).That's the important thing. The truth is a long story. There's a story for the way up (I forgot...

I flew yesterday at 10am. Eventually Adam and I will get around to describing our primary instructor, Bob Delleo. He’s a fairly strict guy and has exacting standards. That’s been, at times, very frustrating (and demoralizing) when taking a lesson, but from my reading it sounds like it makes for a...

The ADIZ is a special zone of airspace around Washington DC. The Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) is huge. It was meant to be temporary and was defined in February of 2003 when, well, I guess we were scared. Now they are talking about making it permanent. The FAA has a comments area set up on...

I am not by nature suited to the rigor and attention to detail that is part and parcel of scooting about the sky without a chaperone. I am just not the detail guy. Big picture, fact bank, rapid extrapolation from known situation, sure, but always remembering to turn on the carburetor heat before...

There is nothing more intimidating than following my brother. Whether it was rollerskating down steep hills or leaping off a speeding motorboat to see what it felt like, there is a little sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that is the fear of looking foolish. Especially in comparison. Following...