In February I posted about an artcle in AOPA Flight Training Magazine in which several aviation blogs were showcased. That article came on the heels of an article that promoted MyFlightBlog.com and several other aviation blogs in the Wall Street Journal.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that when Mike Collins wrote a follow-up article on blogs for the April issue of Flight Training Magazine. In "Blogs for Reading: A Summary of Reader Recommendations" Mike featured seven aviation blogs including MyFlightBlog.com. For those that don't have a subscription to the magazine I scanned a copy of the article that you can read here. This website was in great company with several other blogs that I read on a frequent basis.
Mike Collins wrote "We've all seen 'information' on the Internet that wasn't worth reading, but I was impressed by both the quality and variety of aviation blogs." When I started this blog in the Spring of 2004 there were only a handful of other aviation blogs. One of which was David West's Flight Lessons Learned which was also mention in this article. It is great to see that several years later there are an abundance of blogs to help educate and inspire aspiring pilots.
Also featured in the article was fellow Illinois based student pilot Evan Krueger of The Flying Toga. I was glad he was featured as I had not stumbled upon his blog yet. I have really enjoyed following Evan's experiences learning to fly. He is learning to fly out of Lake in The Hills airport a small airport Northwest of Chicago.
Also mentioned were Finally Learning to Fly, Signal Charlie and Roger's Soaring Blog.
Phil Boyer, President of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) is coming to Chicago for an AOPA Pilot Town Meeting. The event is at the Sheraton Chicago Northwest in Arlington Heights a suburb of Chicago on Tuesday, April 22.
Three years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Phil Boyer at an AOPA Town Meeting in Cincinnati. I am an advocate of AOPA and appreciate all the hard work Mr. Boyer and his staff put in every day to protect the rights and interests of private pilots.
If you are a pilot and live anywhere near the Chicago area, I encourage you to come out to this event.
I have enjoyed reading about aviation blogs in traditional print media as of late. In mid-December MyFlightBlog along with three other aviation blogs( PlasticPilot, Sulako's Blog and Yankee Alpha Foxtrot Bravo.) were featured in the Wall Street Journal's Blog Watch Column. Additionally, the February issue of AOPA Flight Training Magazine includes an article dedicated to Aviation Blogs. The article in Flight Training made mention of several blogs that I read on a regular basis including: JetWhine, Flying in Shawnee and Student Pilot Blog.
Those two articles showcased just a handful of the great blogs dedicated to aviation. Where can you find more aviation blogs? Sure you can troll through the blogroll lists on your favorite aviation blogs like I do on a regular basis. But, now there is another great resource for you to find the best of aviation blogs. Check out Blogged, a site dedicated to helping users find better blogs. To their credit they have very focused categories and instead of tossing aviation blogs in a broad category like transportation or hobbies they have an Aviation category. It currently lists over 60 aviation blogs that have been critiqued by the Blogged staff and each is ranked on a 10 point scale.
MyFlightBlog is proud to be in the top five, currently ranked number 3 with a "Great" rating of 8.6. Also high on the list are several blogs written by pilots I keep in touch with regularly and that I recommend: JetWhine (#2 with a 8.7 score), Av8rdan's World of Flying (#4 with an 8.6 score) and CAPBlog (#16 with a 8.2 score). If you enjoy MyFlightBlog please visit Blogged and give us a review. While you are there check out all the other great aviation blogs.
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal's Blog Watch column written by Keith Huang focused on four blogs written by Pilots. MyFlightBlog.com was one of the featured blogs along with PlasticPilot, Sulako's Blog and Yankee Alpha Foxtrot Bravo.
I am sure the other three pilots have seen increased traffic to their blogs as I have see here. I have enjoyed the e-mails from both fellow pilots and student pilots as a result of the article. I created the blog for two reasons, one being that I wanted to keep family and friends up-to-date on my progress while I was learning to fly. The second was that before I started my training, I looked around for advice and information about becoming a private pilot and although there were some great online resources there were few first person accounts; that has changed greatly in the past few years as the blogroll to the right shows.
A week does not go by that I don't get a nice e-mail from someone who is thinking of learning to fly and who asks for advice. I love being able to give back and share my experiences with these prospective pilots. I also get a bunch of pilots who comment or e-mail about their experiences that help me continue to learn and improve as a pilot. One of my favorite e-mails was from an older gentleman who had not flown in over 30 years and said reading my blog brought back the great memories from when he learned to fly, surely a fond memory for him.
Here is the excerpt of my part of the article. You can view the entire article here on WSJ.com (WSJ subscription required).
MyFlightBlog.com
Todd McClamroch always dreamed of flying. About three years ago, the Chicago resident earned his private pilot's license, and he has been blogging about his time in the air ever since -- in part, he writes, to encourage others to pursue their dreams.Some of Mr. McClamroch's posts offer practical advice to beginners who are interested in aviation, on topics like choosing an aviation school. And he details the time and expense involved in getting a license. But he also takes time to express the joy of piloting: "It's the achievement of making a dream a reality and finally learning to fly after years of looking up at the skies wishing," he writes. "I am sure flying will take me to places I would not have gone, and it may even allow me to travel more efficiently, but in the end it will be for the pure satisfaction of flying."
I have always been a fan of aviation adventures and have recently been caught up in following Barrington Irving's World Flight Adventure. Irving is looking to be the first person of African descent and to be the youngest person ever to fly solo around the world.
Barrington grew up in the inner city of Miami and was 15 years old when he met an United Airlines pilot that got him excited about flying. He began spending his free time at the airport, working to pay for his flight lessons. Aviation has been his passion ever since. In 2005 he founded Experience Aviation a nonprofit organization that looks to inspire the young people and encourage those interested in pursuing careers in aviation. You can learn all about the organization on their website.
Irving has flown over 14,000 miles already in "Inspiration" his trusty Columbia 400 and has another 6,000+ miles to go. The next leg will likely be his most challenging. According to Irving's blog he is in Hong Kong waiting for storms to clear to allow him to make the challenging flight across the North Pacific to Shemya, Alaska. The next leg of the flight will take nearly 12 hours to cover the 1,520 nautical miles. You can view a map tracking his flight progress on the Experience Aviation website. Judging from the satellite imagery he shared on his blog I have a feeling he might be grounded for another few days while the weather pushes off to the East.
If you are intrigued by Irving's flight you should also check out Three Eight Charlie the story of Jerrie Mock's flight around the world. She was the first woman to fly solo around the world. I created a Google Map Mash-up of her route a while back.
MyFlightBlog manages a lens on Squidoo.com about Learning to fly. Squidoo defines a lens as "one person's view on a topic he cares about. More specifically, a lens is a single web page filled with information and links that point to other web pages, to continually updated RSS feeds, or to relevant advertising. It's a place to start, not finish."
I was notified today that out of the 100,000 lenses on the Squidoo site a couple hundred have been nominated for the "Lens of the Year". The winner will be announced on Friday, March 30. If you enjoy MyFlightBlog.com you might enjoy the lens on Squidoo. Check it out then cast a vote for it to be nominated the Lens of the Year.
Please note: when you get to the voting page you may have to click the "see all" button as only the top 25 are shown on the main page.
In addition to maintaining this blog I also contribute for Chicagoist.com. There I concentrate on covering sports but from time to time I will post an article about aviation as it relates to Chicago such as the Air and Water Show or in yesterday’s case about general aviation restrictions around major cites like Chicago.
In the aftermath of the tragic aviation accident involving Yankees Pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor, Tyler Stranger there has been a ton of negative press for General Aviation. Many are asking whether General Aviation should be more closely restricted around our big cities. For Chicagoist I wrote my opinions on the matter. I was happily surprised to see that I received many positive comments in reply to my post many who realize this was an accident but not much more.
Having flown the Hudson River Corridor, safely, this past Spring I would hate to see unnecessary restrictions put in place that would prevent such flights in the future.
I invite you to check out the article on Chicagoist.com.
Over the weekend there was a non-fatal plane crash of a plane departing the airport I flew out of most recently. As you may recall, I visited Schaumburg Airport to check out the Northwest Aviation FBO. I found it to be a professional organization from which I will likely fly again (If the weather ever cooperates – that's another story).
On Sunday, an eighteen year-old student pilot with over 30 hours of flight time and his flight instructor took off from Schaumburg in a Piper Warrior. Shortly after takeoff, the plane experienced engine problems and they were forced to land on a nearby highway. Luckily, cars were able to clear the way but before they could successfully land on the highway, they clipped a light pole with a wing, making the plane land upside down. Both were able to escape from the plane without major injury.
For most pilots, their worst nightmare is to lose an engine right after takeoff before sufficient altitude has been gained to circle back for an emergency landing on the runway. It will be interesting to read the NTSB report when it comes out probably weeks or months from now to learn more about what might have caused the accident and if it could have been avoided.
Reading NTSB reports, especially for airports you fly from, can be very beneficial from a learning perspective. You can view NTSB reports by visiting the NTSB website. Their search engine allows you to find reports by specific criteria like a plane registration number, type of plane, city or state, etc.
I recommend reading reports for your airport so you can learn of environmental and other conditions that might lead to an accident therefore helping you avoid such situations. Additionally, reading about accidents in the type of aircraft you fly can be very beneficial.
I have been a subscriber to Pilot Getaways for almost two years and am always looking forward to the arrival of the next issue. Pilot Getaways does an excellent job of providing pilot destinations for pilots all over the country. For years I used to be a subscriber to Backpacker magazine. But I would be frustrated that the only trails and hikes they discussed were ones that would require significant traveling for a Midwesterner.
Pilot Getaways does a great job of highlighting at least one destination for each region of the United States in each issue. In a previous issue they featured the town of Ephraim, Wisconsin. In October I enjoyed a flight to the Ephraim-Gibraltor airport where I had the opportunity to land on both their turf and asphalt runways.
In this most recent issue they have a "Weekend Getaway" spotlight on Cincinnati, Ohio. They feature the Cincinnati Lunken Airport. I lived less than a mile from Lunken for almost 8 years. It is a great General Aviation Airport with a historic terminal building and great on-airport restaurant, The Sky Galley.
There was also another Midwest story about the El Greco restaurant near Lawrence J. Timmerman Airport just outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Even when Pilot Getaways writes about a destination that may not be close I alwasy find them interesting. This issue's feature story is about flying the Manhattan Corridor, something I would like to do next time I am in the area.
If you are not already subscribed to Pilot Getaways I highly recommend you subscribe today!
There is only one day left to voice your opinions on the The FAA's proposal to make the "temporary" flight restriction over the Washington D.C. area permanent. The current Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) was implemented in February 2003 in response to heightened terrorist threat levels.
There are 19 public-use airports used by more than 10,000 pilots that are effected by the ADIZ restrictions. The ADIZ area covers a 40 mile area from ground level to 18,000 feet. The restrictions of the ADIZ have put unnecessary burdens on general aviation pilots. Many pilots have reported frequently having to hold as much as 45 minutes on the ground or in the air to receive the needed transponder code to fly into the ADIZ. It is unfair that the general aviation aircraft that pose the smallest aviation threat must suffer from the restrictions.
Living in Chicago with a mayor who has proven to be an enemy to general aviation, I am concerned about the precedent that would be set by allowing a permanent ADIZ over the Washington D.C. area. AOPA President, Phil Boyer, said "If the FAA makes the Washington, D.C., ADIZ permanent, it will set a dangerous precedent, creating the possibility of IFR-like flight restrictions within the footprint of every Class B airspace."
AOPA has asked its members to contact the FAA and their representatives before November 2nd to make the voices of General Aviation pilots and enthusiasts heard. So far 16,565 have submitted comments. I submitted comments to the FAA, my two senators and my congressman. If you have not submitted comments visit the AOPA website tonight to find out how you can.
