Posts Tagged ‘flying’

I just came across FlightAware, a live flight tracking site that you can use to follow the usual commercial airline flights but also any flight under IFR. This could be a useful tool for individuals watching their loved ones en route or instructors/FBOs wishing to follow their IFR flights out in the field. In addition [...]

If you are ever passing through Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport with some time to spare, they have an excellent second hand bookstore with a great section on aviation…. Barbara Cushman Rowel was Galen Rowel’s wife and this book is as much a story about her escape from his shadow as it is about a flight she took from Oakland down and around South America and back.

With an acknowledged weakness for books, particularly books related to flying and especially ones with great photography, it wasn’t a struggle to purchase Jim Wark’s ‘America Flying High’ when I came across a second hand copy in my local bookstore.The inscription on the inside front cover caught my eye first of all:”Nick – Happy Birthday on the occasion of your fifteenth birthday, the world is your oyster”Aunt Jane and Uncle Mike clearly picked a great book to illustrate their point and I was a little sad to see that Nick had already decided to pass on this photographic tour of the nation but his loss was my gain and I spent 15 minutes flicking through the pages and then decided to make the purchase so I could really appreciate its content…. In doing a little research online I came across his website, airphotona.com where it mentions that this year Jim was the first recipient of the Epson Aerial Photographer of the Year.In addition to aviation and photography, he has a background in mining engineering and one of the nice things about the book are the passages of text that he uses introduce each section, describing the social and geological forces at work to shape the landscape.

Propellers – most of us use them in one form or another and we study the basic theory as part of the various FAA written exams. The various prop manufacturers have some great additional resources to learn more about these critical components of our aircraft and how to approach the related safety issues.