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In Flight USA Articles
What's Up - March 2014
The Food was Great… But How About the Service?
By Larry Shapiro
I know, you’ve never heard or said these words before, but I know better! I can’t count the times I’ve said them. I know that great food sometimes prevails over bad service, but more than often it’s the other way around. Wonderful meals have been ruined by bad service.
We live in a world where the word “service” is used, and used often. It is not only used often, but also used in so many other ways and sometimes misused.
On Sundays and other observed Sabbaths, “Did you enjoy the Service?”
What's Up - June 2013
Love Story Number Two (Handshakes Are Alive and Well)
By Larry Shapiro
A few weeks ago I started a telephone relationship with a soybean and corn farmer “back home” in Kansas. No! Seriously, I really did. That was a record breaker, then, for distance; we’ve since had these same conversations and hand shakes from as far away as Austria, Afghanistan (for the second time) and we just added Russia.
By the way, we also just completed another handshake deal way out in Missouri on an airplane we’ve never seen and it was another homerun…have faith, my friends, have faith.
Birds of a Feather
(Larry Shapiro)For those of us who actually walk around when we do a “walk around” during the ceremony called a “pre-flight inspection,” we’ve been told that during certain times of the year we should be aware of pieces of grass or straw, and other non-descript items, in or around our cowl openings. I can honestly say I’ve done it once or twice and have never hit pay dirt until last week when I took a closer look under the bonnet and low and behold…Yep! There it was, or maybe I should say, here it is.
What's Up? - November 2011
Your First Driver’s Ticket
By Larry Shapiro
And now a few words from your friendly senior-type writer on a subject near and dear to his heart and probably that of many others just like him.
You would have had to spend the last year living on a submerged submarine if you haven’t heard the rumbling about a driver’s license medical. For those of you who have, continue to pay attention. For those who haven’t heard; you really need to pay attention.
Okay, here’s the scoop: The FAA and a ton of others have been saying, why not eliminate the third class medical and allow those who hold a current, legal, USA unrestricted driver’s license, to now fly airplanes.
I guess they figured if you drive yourself to the aerodrome as PIC of your auto, then you should be able to pilot an aircraft. Now don’t rush down to the airport just yet, there’s more. If this was to happen, and I’ll take some serious bets that it will, some of the restrictions might look like this.
What's Up? - June 2011
The Tunes Of June – Cough! -Don’t Forget To Check The Top
By Larry Shapiro
Okay, everyone stand back! I don’t want you to get dirty when the mud flies or the “you–know-what” hits the fan as I lay this one on you. Y’all know how much I like stirring up things so here goes.
Like many of us, John/Joan Pilot walks into the M.E.’s office because it’s that time again. He’s/she’s there to have their “stuff” checked, things like, aiming for a little cup, getting the old heart beat and pulse racing, pretending to hear sounds that one seldom hears, mostly because the equipment is usually pretty old anyway and I doubt that will ever change.
These lucrative almost franchises, born into medical practices, seldom invest in new and modern doctor stuff; after all, why should they? They usually have other practices, only do FAA work part-time, yet hold your aviation future in their hands.
Light Sport Flying With In Flight USA - June 2011
Re-Tread
By Ed Downs
No, not old tires, although many of us “re-treads” appearing in this month’s sonnet do have some “spare tire” issues. The re-treads being referred to are former pilots who have decided to give flying another go. Sport Pilot has opened doors that some may have thought were closed. This writer was reminded of the “re-tread” market, just the other day, while teaching a class at Yingling Aviation, an historic Cessna dealer located in Wichita, Kansas. During our lunch break, I wandered over to the Cessna Skycatcher final assembly hangar to look at new planes on the assembly line. While looking through a viewing window and talking with one of my students, a young line attendant approached us and asked if we would like to join a retired couple (in tow by the line attendant) and go into the hangar for a closer look. Of course, we joined them. It turns out, no sales personnel were available and the line attendant was doing his best to talk about the C-162. My offer to help promote the plane (very familiar to me) was readily accepted. Joe, the retired guest, was considering reentering aviation after a 40-year hiatus, but knew nothing about Sport Pilot or LSAs. Skycatcher pricing, performance and simplicity left Joe quite impressed, especially after we discussed just what he would have to do to re-enter flying. Of primary importance was the ability to get back into flying without the need to participate in the FAA medical bureaucracy.
Flying With Faber - April 2011
Start Cooking and Protect Your FAA Medical Status
By Stuart Faber
For this issue, Flying with Faber becomes Cooking with Faber. I have spent my life chasing a variety of passions – my favorite, of course, involves being at the controls of any flying machine that will get off the ground. Engaging in the culinary arts would be a close second. Generally, if I am not in an airplane, I am in a kitchen somewhere in the world where I am operating “right seat” or second in command to some great chef who allows me, as a food journalist, to steal a few of his or her culinary secrets.
Whenever I am home, I spend a significant amount of time in my kitchen which is equipped with more gadgets than the cockpit of my airplane. I am a strident devotee to cooking from scratch with the exclusive use of the freshest and best ingredients I can find. I shun such things as farm raised fish, packaged vegetables (or, for the most part, packaged food of any kind), inferior cuts of meat or store-bought pie crusts. I don’t own a microwave. On those rare moments when I will indulge myself in a slice of bread (my “drug of choice”), I will gather my flour, yeast, instant-read thermometer and bake a loaf of artisan sourdough.