January 9, 2015

Has the weather become too dangerous to risk flying?

The Air Asia 8501 crash is causing people to focus anxiously on severe weather as a new danger to flying.  It is not.   The aviation industry has a deep understanding and respect for weather, built up over a century of continuous op...

August 31, 2013

Regulating our way to Mediocrity

I have baked bread at home my whole life. Because I love baking and eating, my bread is very good. So it was no surprise an entrepreneur opening a year round trendy indoor market in New York asked me to take a stall and sell my bread to the public on...

July 19, 2013

A Distorted Market about to get Worse

I recently had a freak accident while cutting some timber on a saw table. A sliver of the off-cut wood fell under the blade guard and was flung into my forearm like an arrow. I had a deep puncture wound which necessitated a quick visit to the emergen...

July 8, 2013

What Went Wrong with Asiana Flight 214

Why would an experienced crew crash a perfectly functional Boeing 777 on what should have been a simple everyday approach and landing in perfect weather? The jury is still out on the official cause of the Asiana crash but most experienced airline pi...

July 8, 2012

Air France 447 Crash Report Reveals a Flaw in Modern Aviation

The  report by France's aviation authority, the BEA, cites technical faults and subsequent pilot error as the cause of the deadly crash in June 2009.  As a 30-plus-year international Boeing pilot, I feel qualified to offer a few observation...