December 22, 2022
On November 12, 2022, a tragic midair collision took place at an airshow in Dallas, Texas, between a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber and a P-63 Kingcobra fighter. The two World War II aircraft were destroyed, and six people (the 5-person crew of the B-17 and the single pilot of the P-63) were killed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Dallas_airshow_mid-air_collision The […]
December 22, 2022
Here are videos (taken by my CFI) of the takeoff and landing from my first solo flight, at Lincoln Park (N07) on April 27, 2021. Takeoff: Landing: Now that slight rise after I nearly touch down isn’t a bounce. It’s a “balloon”, because I’ve pulled back just a touch too much on the yoke. Rather […]
December 18, 2022
Today is a two-fer. For my next MSFS trick, I’ll be flying the classic British WW2 fighter, the Spitfire. But not just any Spitfire, mind you, the one-of-a-kind “Black Spit” of the Israeli air force. I’ll explain the story behind the 57 Black Spit in a second, but first, let’s get this thing started. Starting […]
December 18, 2022
Today in Microsoft Flight Simulator I’ll be flying the Fouga CM.170 Magister, the world’s first 2-seat jet trainer, which starting in the 1950s played a key role in transitioning several air forces from piston to jet aircraft – and also fought in a number of “brush wars”. I’ll start the story here at Toulouse’s Blagnac […]
December 18, 2022
I knew Eddie Rickenbacker was an American flying ace in World War I, and won the Medal of Honor, but I didn’t know that much about the rest of his life until now. Rickenbacker grew up in poverty. His parents were struggling immigrants from Switzerland. His home had no electricity, plumbing, or heat. He ran […]
December 18, 2022
Today in Microsoft Flight Simulator, I’m flying the de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth, the airplane that trained thousands of pilots from across the British Empire to take to the air in World War II. Born in 1882, Geoffrey de Havilland was the second son of a village pastor. At an early age, he displayed a […]
December 17, 2022
Welcome to Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport, where today in Microsoft Flight Sim I will be flying the Junkers Ju 52, one of the world’s first modern airliners, which became an icon of the Nazi regime. Tempelhof was Berlin’s main airport from 1927 to the 1970s, and was a main site of the 1948 Berlin Airlift. I […]
December 17, 2022
Welcome to Munda, in the Solomon Islands, where I’ll be checking out the iconic the F4U-1 Corsair in its natural WW2 habitat, in Microsoft Flight Simulator. As some of you may recall, I’ve actually been to Munda, where I did an extensive post on the World War II campaign there and at nearby Guadalcanal. Now […]
December 16, 2022
I just read to my 8-year old twin daughters about an exceptional person I never heard of before: Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman pilot, and the first Native American pilot. Bessie was born in 1892 to a family of sharecroppers in Texas. Her family was part Cherokee. She walked four miles every day to […]
December 15, 2022
Today on Microsoft Flight Simulator, I’m at Homey Airport (KXTA), aka Groom Lake, aka Area 51. I’ve come here, to the remote Nevada desert, to fly one of the most iconic top secret aircraft of all time: the F-117 Nighthawk, commonly called the Stealth Fighter. The story of the F-117 begins in 1964, when the […]