Kirby is five time US National Aerobatic Champion and two time Red Bull Air Race World Champion. His website is www.teamchambliss.com
“We’ll Get That Straight When We Get Airborne”
It’s better to look a little stupid now, than a lot stupid later. The US NTSB has released full investigative notes on last year’s crash of US Airways flight 1702, an A320 taking off from Philadelphia International airport. We can learn a lot from this crash of a fully airworthy Airbus. It actually got into the air, and then the captain …
Peter Isler’s Sailing Secrets
Peter Isler won the America’s Cup twice, and has a long amazing biography of sailing achievements. He also wrote a book of sailing secrets. I just read it, looking for seamanship secrets we can use as pilots. And guess what, the secrets really aren’t that secret! There were some ideas that directly translate to flying. Here’s one that resonated: Behind …
Do You Wear a Watch?
Airplane owners always say “safety is number one,” but how many encourage us to not wear a watch? Captain Richard de Crespigny is a former military pilot, and was PIC of QF32, the A380 that suffered massive damage after engine #2 exploded. The quote is from his fantastic book, QF32.
Blame the Pilots?
Air Force Times article from two days ago sums up the results of a six-week investigation of the October 3rd bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan that killed 30 people – Crew Blamed. However the news story also notes deeper systematic issues, a culture that places pilots into impossible situations. But you can’t discipline a procedure or …
Standard Checklists
Despite the emergency checklists provided for abnormalities, it’s the standard checklists that you use before you begin your flight that often determine whether you live or come crashing down in a pile of mistakes. Erika Armstrong from her new book ‘A Chick in the Cockpit.’ The book has some good flying stuff in it, but is more about her personal …
Ball Flying and Baseball
This was sent to me by an Art of Airmanship reader, who is an active USN F/A-18 pilot. It was written sometime in the 90’s, and is credited to Lieutenant Commander James Winnefeld, Jr. He was a US Navy pilot, a real TOPGUN instructor, and worked on the movie Top Gun. He is currently an Admiral, serving as Vice Chairman of the …
The Sea is Not to be Mastered
Quote is from the preface to the 1983 book ‘Seamanship’. The painting is ‘Storm at Sea’ by Willem van de Velde the Younger. Sailing philosophy that applies equally to flying, and just maybe, life.
The Two Attributes Needed to Make a Seaman
“I think that the two important attributes needed to make a seaman are, first, that he should perform all his actions at the right speed (many people fail through trying to do things too fast) and, second, that he should be the master (rather than the slave) of every piece of equipment on board his yacht.” ~ Peter Kemp, ex …
