Plastic Pilot

In Switzerland, the route to a private pilot license goes through evening classes to prepare the theoretical examination. These are not always fun and animated - I know, I’ve been the “teacher” for a couple of years in Geneva Aero-Club…
Hopefully, most student groups include one “different” student. It can be someone with a strong sense […]

The core of the “Principles of Flight” course (a.k.a. PoF, a.k.a. Aerodynamics) is the chapter about the four forces. This piece of propaganda and disinformation has been designed to make pilots think that four forces apply to an aircraft and govern its spatial evolution: lift, weight, thrust, and drag.
This is a fundamental mistake, and I’ll […]

If you have kids, you know how important (and hard) it is to explain them to cross roads at the zebra-crossing only. What has this to do with aviation ? It’s all about runway markings, kids, and Toulouse Airport…
Someone working for the french ATC told me this story a couple of years ago. A group […]

Aviation is a serious activity, and as all serious activities it also contains a serious part of fun ! From true stories, like this pilot who wanted to say he made a kiss-landing, but talk to his passengers about a “french-kiss-landing”.
The communications between air traffic controllers and pilots are also sometimes… surprising, like when a […]