risk

The Impossible Climb

By Dave English

I was lucky enough to get an advance review copy of a new book coming out in March 2019: The Impossible Climb: A Personal History of Alex Honnolds’s Free Solo of El Capitan and a Climbing Life, by Mark Synnott. It’s pretty dang awesome. Highly recomended. Alex Honnold, the world’s greatest climber, went 3000 feet up shear mountain face, alone with no ropes. An achievement so incredible that the New York Times called it “one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever.” And since free solo climbing involves personal high-stakes risk-management at altitude, as pilots we can both … Continue reading The Impossible Climb

The air is

By Dave English

“The air is an extremely dangerous, jealous and exacting mistress. Once under the spell most lovers are faithful to the end, which is not always old age. Even those masters and princes of aerial fighting, the survivors of fifty mortal duels in the high air who have come scatheless through the War and all its perils, have returned again and again to their love and perished too often in some ordinary commonplace flight undertaken for pure amusement.” Sir Winston Churchill, ‘In The Air’, Thoughts and Adventures, 1932. Churchill was an avid pilot in his younger days, but ended lessons in … Continue reading The air is

In the news today, living and dying

By Dave English

Two big news stories today. One sad one happy. Both involve unique planes and expert pilots that I’ve flown with a few times. The sad one first: Man Killed in Plane Crash at Covington Airport was Avid Pilot I flew with Lance Hooley several times in the A320, about 14 years ago, when I was a first officer at the airline we both work at. Worked at I should say, in Lance’s case. That’s hard to write. He was an engaging intelligent pilot. Talked with him last just a few months ago, on a jetbridge taking a jet he had flown in. Yesterday he … Continue reading In the news today, living and dying

Safety is number three

By Dave English

#1 Don’t Panic. #2 #3 Safety. “Safety third. There’s not even a Rule Number Two. But even though there’s nothing in second place, safety is not getting promoted to number two.” Elon Musk’s family rules show a mature understanding of the fallacy of ‘safety first’. There’s lots of other good stuff in this long Rolling Stone interview 30 November 2017.