Brian Schiff is an interesting guy. Longtime captain for a major airline, Brian was soloed by his famously prolific aviation dad on his 16th birthday. At heart, he has always been a GA guy who owns and flies a Citabria and is an active, accomplished flight instructor. His presentation, “SoCal Airspace Anomalies,” dissected the intricacies of navigating the challenging (to put it mildly) Southern California airspace— legally. At some time after 11 p.m., glassy-eyed and numb-brained, I left the webinar for bed. But I was so impressed with Brian’s briefing and his low-key, fun and (deceptively) casual manner as an instructor that, before climbing into the sack, I emailed father and son Schiff, “Great presentation, learned a lot…mostly, ‘Stay the hell out of SoCal airspace.’”
Not surprising, I dreamed about flight instructing that night—real and mostly sweet memories of old students and airplanes interspersed with nightmare fantasies of being a flight instructor in Southern California and headaches about the current FAA airman certification standards licensing requirements. And I remembered (yeah, here I go again), years ago, before I was a CFI, when a local flight school operator and pilot examiner named Don Fairbanks had a well-attended monthly get-together for area flight instructors. They met on the second floor of the Lunken Airport terminal building in a clubroom/ bar operated, to this day (usually for something more alcoholic than education), by the Greater Cincinnati Airmen Club.
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Sudden Surprise Trouble
What the FAA taketh away, it giveth back.
LIFE IN THE AIR: Living the Dream
The journey from M X to CFI
Doc, David, Herb and the Cops
A once-in-a-lifetime B-29 flight
WHEN THE MUSIC DIES
VFR FLIGHT INTO IMC
WE FLY: FLIGHT DESIGN F2
AN ALL-AROUND ALL- COMPOSITE TREAT
Tail Tales
What works on one airplane might not work on another.
STINSON 108
THE FLYING STATION WAGON
Blame for the 737 Max
The FAA designee program is too big to fail.
Bittersweet Goodbye
Leaving the flight deck amidst a pandemic
An Aviation Mentor
Why it’s so important
TOP 8 Worst encore seasons
There have been plenty of tough acts to follow in the history of the 49ers franchise with a team that has five Super Bowl championships, seven Super Bowl visits, 16 trips to the NFC Championship game, and 27 playoff appearances. That kind of success has seen the 49ers enter many seasons over the years looking to take the next step to greatness or simply maintain it. That makes them fall and crash even worse when San Francisco failed to achieve those goals coming off triumphant seasons. The 2020 49ers know all about it, which lands them a place on this list of the worst encore seasons in franchise history.
Bears & Gobblers
SPRING BEAR & TURKEY IN MONTANA
Rising Above
Two gutsy climbers tackle South America’s highest summit.
UAS TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT The Key to the Future of Drones
In 2012, Congress passed the FAA Modernization and Reform Act, which established a deadline for the agency: achieve full integration of drones into the airspace by 2015. As the calendar rolls over into 2021, this begs an obvious question: “Are we there yet?”
A Colossal Challenge
Photographing Salem’s Oregon Pioneer
Jacqueline Bisset's Sizzling Career
Now in her seventh decade as a film actress, British beauty Jacqueline Bisset first hit the big screen in the mid-1960s and was soon on her way to becoming a household name after dramatic roles later in the decade in films such as “Bullitt” with Steve McQueen.
JAMAL HARVEY
The 1985 police killing of his brother still powers his efforts to unite his adopted city
Michael Des Barres' Longevity
MICHAEL DES BARRES AND THE MISTAKES’ NEW RELEASE, LIVE!, SHOWS HOW ENERGETIC THE 73-YEAR-OLD FRONTMAN IS AFTER A LIFETIME OF ROCK AND ROLL.
10 ALBUMS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE
GROOVES
DECADE OF iPAD: HOW THE TABLET CHANGED THE WORLD
In 2010, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took to the stage to announce a device that would revolutionize the way we read, watch, learn, and work. Ten years on, the iPad remains one of Apple’s most iconic products, ushering in a personal computing experience that continues to evolve at speed.