Author: Dave English

Sooner or later

By Dave English

“If you’re going to go to the Moon, sooner or later you’ve got to go to the Moon.” Flight Director Glynn Linney, summing up the rationale for the Apollo 8 ‘go’ decision, NASA meetings, 1968. Quoted in the 2019 book Shoot for the Moon. This was a huge decision, a quantum step from Earth orbit flights.  Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to leave Earth’s gravitational sphere of influence going out into deep space, and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times without landing and then returned to Earth. The three astronauts were the first humans to see and photograph … Continue reading Sooner or later

BlueSky

By Dave English

I’ve joined a new social media site, very twitter when twitter was twitter, called BlueSky. It’s great! Lots of aviation and real discussions. My new airmanship page is at https://bsky.app/profile/innerairmanship.com Maybe I’ll see you there . . .

It seemed the aircraft was almost …

By Dave English

“As we took to the skies it seemed the aircraft was almost an extension of his body, carving its way over the water and through the air as if it already knew what inputs came next.” Niki Britton, describing Aaron Singer fly a seaplane over San Francisco. AOPA Pilot magazine, October 2024. It’s what good flying looks like.

Jack Kornfield on Paragliding

By Dave English

I had no idea about this. Listening to a repeat of a Tim Ferriss podcast with famed Buddhist writer and teacher Jack Kornfield, he expressed his love of … paragliding: “One of my favorite things is to tandem paraglide and go off the top of places like Grindlewold in Switzerland, where you can take the ski lift up 9,000 feet and then jump off and float silently, like you’re a bird among the clouds. The birds actually do come by sometimes and check out, what’s this big bird flying up here? You can catch thermals and go way up above the … Continue reading Jack Kornfield on Paragliding