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The Disciples of Flight movie review

By Dave English

At the end of 2019 I downloaded a new aviation documentary— and it’s gorgeous. Beautifully shot crisp HD images of general aviation flying paired with insightful interviews from a bunch of pilots, including Patty Wagstaff, Rod Machado and NASA’s Dr. Dismukes. You can download it from Disciples of Flight directly for $15, or use Amazon Prime Video. Well worth the price for the visuals alone. The movie’s 93-minutes are all about personal dedication to aviation, about really loving and living flying. There’s no narrator, just lots of hangar interviews cut with super cool flying video. Both feel personal, close, real. … Continue reading The Disciples of Flight movie review

Olé Olé Olé!

By Dave English

An electrifying movie about the Rolling Stones recent South American tour has awesome concert footage, and some reflective thoughts from all the band members after 55+ years of working towards excellence and mastery: “At the start of a tour, it’s like being on a tightrope, that once you’ve set foot on it, that rope widens and becomes a bridge that you can run across.” ~ Ronnie Wood. “I felt I’d been given a very complicated puzzle to solve. And that I could just figure a little bit more out every time, then there was another big of the puzzle solved. … Continue reading Olé Olé Olé!

Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown talks flying

By Dave English

Legendary Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown was a British Royal Navy test pilot who flew 487 types of aircraft, more than anyone else in history. He was the most-decorated pilot in the history of the Royal Navy. Some of his ‘firsts’ include first to land a jet on an aircraft carrier and first to land a twin-engine aircraft on an aircraft carrier. He logged over 2,200 aircraft carrier landings. Fought in combat, commanded air bases. Absolutely bloody amazing. Amazon Prime Video has a great little documentary that is almost all him sitting on his couch talking, with some old test footage. … Continue reading Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown talks flying

The plane doesn’t know

By Dave English

“Flying is a great equalizer. The plane doesn’t know or care about your gender as a pilot … You just have to perform.” Lt. Col. Christine Mau, USAF. The plane also doesn’t know or care if you’re tired, or if you were going to study more tomorrow, or if you’re in a hurry. Quote is in a nice article, Meet The First Female F-35 Pilot, by Tom Demerly. “You just have to perform. That’s all anyone cares about when you’re up there — that you can do your job, and that you do it exceptionally well.”

This hits close

By Dave English

A new episode of the National Geographic Air Crash Investigation TV show, titled  Killer Attitude is hard for me to watch. It describes the crash of a perfectly good Northwest Airlink Jetstream 31 from MSP to Hibbing, MN, on 1 December 1993. I was flying out of MSP that night, same airplane type, same airline. I knew the captain, Marvin. I remember the grief counselors in the MSP crew room for two weeks after the crash.    And one of the presenters, Craig Railsback, is a friend. We met 25 years ago, as young first officers in Jetstream 31 training at this … Continue reading This hits close