Air-Minded: V for Victory

When I started conducting walking tours at the Pima Air & Space Museum a few months ago, I quickly realized I’d talk myself hoarse if I didn’t overcome a certain egotistical reluctance to use a portable voice amplifier and speaker.  The museum had two but they were big heavy things, each one powered by eight […]

Air-Minded: Old Jets, Older Stories

People who don’t know any better are starting to think the F-15 Eagle … like me … is ancient history. Witness this BBC News story, gleefully shared by a Facebook friend: The linked story describes how Japan grounded its Eagle fleet after a fuel tank and training missile fell off a wing of an F-15J […]

Town Without Pity

Hat tip to Nancy Nall for pointing me toward this New York Times article about small town gossip run rampant on an internet forum.  People in Mountain Grove, Missouri used to swap gossip face to face at Dee’s Place, but these days they have ” … shifted from sharing the latest news and rumors over […]

Air-Minded: Reno Speculation

Two words: holy shit! In the aftermath of an airplane crash all manner of misinformation hits the news.  It’s even worse if there are a lot of witnesses.  You’d think it would be otherwise, but people are in general terrible witnesses, especially when they see something shocking and violent, something that happens in the blink […]

Air-Minded: the Wright Way

When I lead visitors on walking tours at the Pima Air & Space Museum, we start underneath a replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer.  I think about Orville and Wilbur often.  They showed us the way, and the F-15 Eagle I flew in the US Air Force used the same three-axis controls the Wrights developed […]

Air-Minded: Amphibian Edition

Pima Air & Space Museum is determined to keep me on my toes.  PASM is closing the normal entrance area for a month, and guests will now be entering the main hangar from the gift shop.  Before, my walking tour started underneath the replica of the Wright Flyer.  Now it’ll start smack in the middle […]

Ow, My Head

Very sore this morning.  Yesterday the dermatologist removed a sebaceous cyst from the top of my scalp.  There must be a lot of stitches … I can’t count them yet because the bandage doesn’t come off for another hour … but however many there are, they’re tight, tight, tight.  A poor man’s facelift!  I’m sporting […]