Category: I learned from that

Navigating Instrument Failure at 10,000 Feet

I’m not here! I’m celebrating Thanksgiving in the US for the first time in 30 years, so I do hope someone has organised a double-batch of cranberry sauce. Don’t worry though, I have a great guest post from my friend Lola Reid Allin. Lola was among the first female commercial pilots, breaking barriers in aviation…

Read more… 22 Nov 24

The Human-Machine Interface: Reports from ASRS

CALLBACK is a NASA publication from their Aviation Safety Reporting System which takes anonymised ASRS reports and presents them in a “lessons learned” format. Every month, they focus on a different aspect of aviation safety, One issue that they have focused on recently, which coincidentally fits in with some of the accidents that we have…

Read more… 3 Jun 22

April Showers Bring…More Questions and Answers

It’s time again for a collection of questions from readers for the community to answer. This time, I’ve collected some questions from the comments that didn’t get much attention previously. If you know the answer, come on over the comments and leave a note. If you have a question, add it to the comments (one…

Read more… 22 Apr 22

Close Call with Hand-Propping

Today’s piece is a guest post by someone who wishes to remain anonymous. I think it’s great that he’s not only willing to learn from his rather frightening experience but happy to share it with the rest of us. Let me preface this by saying that both myself and the plane are fine, the only…

Read more… 31 Aug 18

The Low Rotor Horn

Reddit user CrimsonAv8or posted this story on the flying subreddit and I immediately got in touch to ask if I could share the post with you! It’s a very good and honest piece which definitely comes under the ‘learned about flying from that’ category. I hope you find it as interesting as I did. For…

Read more… 23 Mar 18

The Hurried Walkaround

This is a guest post by John Hill, who originally shared the story on the Professional Pilots Rumour Network. John’s been flying all his life and his story of a lessoned learned after a hurried walk-around is as intriguing as it is instructive. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I’ve been…

Read more… 9 Oct 15

Accident Reports

Bomber 139's Third Run: What the Investigation Found

In order to follow this analysis, you’ll need to have the details of the flight and the crash from last week’s article about the flight. When we last saw Bomber…

Bomber 139's Third Run: Downhill to Disaster

On the 6th of February 2023, a Boeing 737-3H4 Large Air Tanker crashed into a ridge line of 222 feet elevation in Fitzgerald River National Park in Western Australia. There…

Demystifying

Another quick round of questions and answers

It’s time for another Questions and Answers session. I started this series a few years back, when a reader asked if there was a way to pose aviation questions outside…

Durga Puja Pandal Shows Air India Flight 171 Crash

The following video from a religious festival in West Bengal, India, has caught a lot of social media attention. It shows a detailed representation of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner…

History

Gladys Ingle Inflight Wheel Change: Emergency Action or Stunt?

This video of a mid-air wheel exchange goes viral once a year or so, but I never get tired of watching it. Last week, it showed up on Reddit and…

The Disappearance of the Hawaii Clipper May Not Be as Mysterious as Was Thought

This week, we have a guest post by J.B. Rivard who wrote an article for the American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS) and used one of my articles as a reference.…

Fun Stuff

The Mystery of the Caged Tyres and the Porcupine Who Flew Home

This photograph was posted to r/shittyaskflying, a subreddit dedicated to asking silly questions and giving silly answers. In this case, the photograph is enough to make one wonder what’s going…

Songs About Failed Spacecraft and Space Disasters

This week, I’m handing over Fear of Landing to my friend Jack Keller who promised me a playlist of music relating to my interests. All of the titles except one…