Summer in Our Towns
How the summer of 2023 looks from the air and on the ground.
Travel
59 posts
Cooperation, Calm, and Competence: This Is How It Sounds
In the skies over Dulles airport last week, pilots and controllers gave an example of grace under pressure.
The Quiet Competence That Makes the Country Run
Being "inside the clouds" is stressful. But when you break into the clear, you see things you might not have noticed before. A view of the "soft skills" part of America's human infrastructure, and their difference from those in China and elsewhere.
The End of the Journey
Arriving in Tucson, we felt the inklings of coming full circle with our American Futures project. Only one more leg of our journey, about 400 miles, before we reached our destination of…
Flying Into the Deep South
We woke up in Demopolis, Alabama, on day two of the final journey of our American Futures series for The Atlantic. We were one day out of Washington D.C. (first installment here)…
Farewell to Washington
Montgomery County traffic, Cirrus Four-Three-Five Sierra Romeo taking Runway One-Four, VFR (visual flight rules) departure to the west, Montgomery. Rolling down Runway 14 for takeoff from Montgomery County Airpark in…
Happy New Year: See You in June
For me this is the third post of the day, and probably the last in this space for quite a while. Effective today, I’m beginning a five-month book-writing leave from online and print…
Life in the Air
Getting from here to there by small plane
From the Air Traffic Controller’s Perspective
Two days ago I mentioned the unflappable, multi-tasking and multi-dimensional competence with which an air-traffic controller at Denver’s Centennial airport handled a sudden shift in winds, and the resulting complete re-organization in…
The Air Traffic Ballet
During our travels Deb has often mentioned our interest in, and nearly-all-times admiration for, the Air Traffic Controllers with whom we deal. One of her early posts, “Say Souls on Board,”…
View From the Right Seat
During our more than 50,000 miles of flight for our American Futures project, I’ve sat in the “right seat” of our Cirrus SR22. That’s the official term for my spot in…
America by Air: Whitewater
In one way or another, all Clinton-era “scandals” trace back to Whitewater. That was the late-1970s Arkansas real estate deal that prompted an investigative crusade by the NYT during Bill Clinton’s presidential run in…
‘American Futures’ Master List: Some of the Hundreds of Places We Would Like to Go
Some of the Hundreds of Places We Would Like to Go
"There is more going on, in more places, than you imagined."
Welcome Our Newest National Monuments!
Often it seems that modern presidents can't do anything — except wage war. Here's a heartening exception.
Why an F-16 Hit a Cessna, and Some More-Upbeat Updates
Sobering news from the NTSB, but encouraging news from Maine to California