The Captain’s Corner On my bookshelf is a large three-ring binder titled Flight Operations Manual (FOM). It’s about two-and-a-half inches thick, with subject tabs that cover topics such as emergency procedures, weather, passengers, baggage and cargo, maintenance, reports and forms,…
The Captain’s Corner It’s a dark, murky, rainy night. The cockpit crew members are intently following the flight instruments while descending on the approach to landing. Outside the windshield is nothing but blackness. At two hundred feet above the ground,…
The Captain’s Corner “First, check your attitude indicator,” our flight instructors would admonish us. As students who were learning to fly, we were being trained to “fly blind,” preparing for the times when we would be in the midst of…
The Captain’s Corner When I think of my career as a pilot—starting at age fifteen and lasting nearly fifty years—I am fascinated by how much the word trust surfaces in both the physical and mental activity of flight. Trust is relying…
The Captain’s Corner One of the greatest joys of working for the airlines—and there are many—is the relationship with the passionate professionals with whom one flies. Among the most personal of these is the pilot–copilot relationship. The pilot, also known…