A Pilot’s Blog
A blog about aviation, aviation news, and space.

I just wanted to send out Veteran’s Day good wishes and links to Jeff at A Multi-Engine Instructor’s Blog (turned Airline Pilot) and American Solider at Adventures in flying!. You gentlemen, and all others who have served and are serving, have my everlasting gratitude and respect. God Bless You.

On November 3, 1957, nearly one month after the successful launch of Sputnik, the Soviet Union surprised the world again by launching the first animal into space. That animal, a small dog named Laika, paved the way for the eventuality of human spaceflight by showing that a living thing could be launched into space and survive. Unfortunately, she only survived a short while once in orbit - only a few hours, compared to the several days that the Soviet government originally reported. So today we remember and honor Laika, and all of the animals that have followed her, for their sacrifices - albeit unwittingly.

Today is the one year “blogiversary” of A Pilot’s Blog in its current form. So, I’ve decided to create a little round-up of five of my favorite posts (not that I post all that often) from the past year.

Happy 7-8-7 Day (July 7, 2007)

Project Constellation (June 10, 2007)

Lunar Eclipse (March 3, 2007)

The Treadmill Problem Revisited (January 5, 2007)

The Treadmill Problem (December 12, 2006)

Being a government entity, the FAA always manages to come up with things with a straight face, that most anybody else would stop and go…wait a minute. All airports have a three-letter identifier with which they are referenced in the aviation world. The identifier that was given to Souix City, Iowa’s Gateway Airport? SUX. Of course, Souix City didn’t really like that, so they petitioned the FAA to have it changed. Their choices were “GWU, GYO, GYT, SGV and GAY”. Again, you’ve got to love the FAA. Anyways, the airport has decided to turn the tables around and use the unique identifier to their benefit. Fly SUX!.

AP story here.

On October 14, 1947 then Captain Chuck Yeager piloted his Bell X-1 “Glamorous Glennis” into the history books. What began as a flight that was just supposed to go to Mach .97, ended with a Mach 1.06 flight past the sound barrier. Captain Yeager went on to retire a Brigadier General in 1975. You are truly an inspiration General. I salute you.

Per a Press Release issued a few days ago:

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Cobham said Thursday that a memorandum of agreement (MOA) has been signed between its U.S. subsidiary, Sargent Fletcher and Boeing Integrated Defense Systems to provide the composite Body Fuel Tank System for the KC-767 Advanced Tanker.

The MOA was issued by The Boeing Company to Sargent Fletcher, part of Cobham’s Air Refuelling and Auxiliary Mission Equipment Division, in support of the USAF Tanker KC-X proposal, the company said.

The English military is going to be using the Boeing 767 tankers, and I can only hope that the USAF will also continue to use Boeing aircraft for their mid-air refueling needs.

The official search for missing aviator Steve Fossett was halted a few days ago. I had hoped the situation would turn out differently, and I’m very saddened that Mr. Fossett has not yet been found - in any condition. Godspeed sir.

Through the efforts of Google and other companies, satellite images taken of the search area where Mr. Fossett is believed to be have been uploaded to Amazon Mechanical Turk. If you have an account there, and some free time, you can assist with the search to find this legendary aviator.

I was very startled to come home today and read this news.

MINDEN, Nev. (AP) — Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who has cheated death time and again in his successful pursuit of aviation records, was missing Tuesday after taking off in a single-engine plane the day before to scout locations for a land-speed record, officials said.

Teams searched a broad swath of rugged terrain in western Nevada near the ranch where he took off, but searchers had little to go on because he apparently didn’t file a flight plan, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

I was very fortunate to be able to watch Mr. Fossett’s record-breaking flight around the world in the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer. Ironically enough, the picture I chose for my top logo last night was taken by me upon his landing following that flight. I pray that this turns out ok and he’s found alive and well.

As you can see the look of the blog has changed dramatically. This is because I have ported A Pilot’s Blog to WordPress. While the old software, Nucleus, was running the blog very well, it had been nearly a year since they last issued an update. I decided that it would be best to move to a more “mainstream” and regularly maintained blog engine. The most important thing for any readers that I might have out there is that the permalinks have changed. If you happen to be linking to one of my posts, please check that post and update your link.

I may still be tweaking things here and there, and if any other major changes come about I’ll let you know.