It’s always a balance

It’s always a balance — you have to make money; you have to stay on schedule; moving people is your goal. But you have to get them there safely. Captain Sheryl Clarke Director of safety, security and compliance, ExpressJet Airlines. While there are some concerns with SMS, it’s nice to see a senior airline SMS manager publicly (in Flying magazine online) acknowledge that safety is not number one. Moving people is the goal. Safety is risk management. Safety is a balance.   “Safety is our number one value” and other trite soundbites initially sound good, until you try to apply … Continue reading It’s always a balance

Fly like an Eagle

I just re-watched the excellent rockumentary History of the Eagles (2013), over four hours on the band that made the biggest-selling album of the twentieth century. The movie has several revealing interviews with members of the legendary band. Contemporary thoughts from the early 70’s, and reflections after 40 years: “Perfection is not an accident.” Glenn Frey “Our goal was just to be the best we could be. We wanted to get better as songwriters and as performers. And we worked on it.” Don Henley “Your whole mandate is just to improve. Life is about improvement.” Glenn Frey “It wasn’t a hobby … Continue reading Fly like an Eagle

It remains a puzzle

How to land? Last night, in the dark of 16L, everything looked perfect. I gently bought the A320 into a nice flare, and was rewarded with an OK, but harder than I wanted, landing. It was safe. Many would say it was good. But I was disgruntled. I can do better. Often the final touch-down remains a puzzle to me. Today I watched some early 1970’s US TV. Strongly influenced by Bruce Lee, the show Kung Fu featured a fictional monk trained at the Shaolin Temple in China who wandered around the American Wild West kicking bad guy butt. This … Continue reading It remains a puzzle