Late in the afternoon, just as Iowa farmers were preparing for harvest, I took a student up for one of our first instructional flights. I couldn’t help but take a moment to capture a photo of this unique farm layout with drainage patterns carved out in the gently rolling hills. Virtually unnoticeable from the ground, … Read more…

Yes, there is a shortage of pilots, but what does that mean? Well, first of all, let’s look at why there is a perceived shortage of pilots. Traditionally in the USA pilots came from in of three sources. The first generation of pilots were self-taught. They literally built their own planes and then jumped in … Read more…

Big companies invest in multi-million dollar jets because they know something their competitors don’t. Flying beats the competition. But what about small planes? Does it make sense to learn to fly and invest in your own plane? I came up with three scenarios from my experience.  Scenario 1: I got my private pilot license and … Read more…

Inevitably, when I tell a prospective flight student the ‘cost’ associated with getting their pilot license, I often hear, “I would if I could afford it.” It’s got me to thinking. What I think they mean is, ‘I don’t want to afford it.’ Something(s) are just a higher priority. Aviation is more than just a … Read more…

Everyone knows that to learn to fly, you must, at some point, get into an airplane with a flight instructor and learn to do it. But what, exactly, do we learn? First off, when new flight students delve into their first lesson, they begin to learn physics. They learn about Bernoulli’s  principles and Newton’s laws. … Read more…