Few rules are more confounding than those regarding the use of cell phones and portable electronic devices (PEDs). Are these gadgets really hazardous to flight? People want a simple, fits-all answer. Unfortunately, there isn’t one. It depends on the gadget and how and when that gadget is used. Let’s take laptops first. In theory, an […]

Aviation has a boundless tendency to take the simplest ideas and present them in language as convoluted as possible. Nothing is a more glittering example of this than the safety briefing—twenty-five seconds of useful information hammered into seven minutes of rigmarole so weighed down with extraneous language that the crew may as well be talking […]

The hassles and indignities of flying are duly noted.  But what about the upside? Seldom does the cranky flyer acknowledge the benefits wrought from the airline industry’s cutthroat competition. Passengers have reaped the benefit of dirt-cheap tickets, for one.  The legacies have had little choice but to match the prices offered by LCCs, one result […]

2023 Was One of Safest Years in Aviation History.

So Why Am I Nervous?

Or When it Doesn’t.

Plus: How Today’s Media Breeds Alarm.

It’s a Nay Vote on Age 67.

Call Me Disappointed, and Here’s Why.

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. What it Does and Doesn’t Mean.

Pilots and Mental Health.

Pilot PAs, Landing Gear, Missing Windows, and My Strange Aversion to Concerts.

Public Address Madness at a Terminal Near You.