Amazing this little adventure started 9 years ago today! While ReviewBeforeFlight may be dormant right now, I’ll keep these anniversary posts coming. You never know, maybe someday we’ll be back and populating this space with content more frequently. Until then we’ll keep the CFI current (renewed it this summer) and keep the web address reserved.
This is the first post I’ve made since the 7th Anniversary post here. I guess that means it hasn’t been the most productive year for ReviewBeforeFlight. That said, I just couldn’t let the 30th of December go by without at least marking the occasion of the day I started the blog. I created the blog when I was a full time flight instructor, teaching ground school courses and collegiate aviation courses. I wanted to have a space to memorialize items to serve as a reference for my students as well as a place to share my passion for aviation. Little did I know that so many others would contribute to the writing here or that readers from across the world would frequent the site… I may not be actively flight instructing anymore but I maintain my flight instructor certificate, and I maintain this site because of the continued readership.
First time flying since 2018!
This past year I returned to the skies for the first time in many years. On the 4th of July I took to the skies over Indiana. It wasn’t to watch fireworks, but it was in the right seat of a Cherokee 180. The CFI I was flying with let me exercise the aircraft and encouraged me to fly through the soft field landings myself. I have to admit, I was overly surprised how amazing my soft field landings were, maybe my best ever. I’m not trying to make a comparison between myself and Ted Williams here, but… They say that Ted Williams was such a good hitter because he could see the ball in slow motion. Well, when I was making those soft field landings, it was like things slowed down and I was one with the airplane. That flight made me remember how much I love flying and I’m grateful to my wife and father-in-law for setting up the opportunity.
As 2021 concludes I have stepped down as President of EAA Chapter 51, but I’m excited to stay involved with the board of directors as Immediate Past President. I opted not to seek reelection with EAA because I am very excited to be the new President of the Massachusetts Airport Management Association (MAMA), which has been a goal of mine for quite some time. I look forward to contributing to advancing aviation in Massachusetts in my new role.
It’s been quite a year since I penned the 6th Anniversary Post for ReviewBeforeFlight a year ago. Going into 2020 I had plans of getting back into flying general aviation aircraft, continuing to be active with my local EAA chapter … Continue reading →
This post was published here on ReviewBeforeFlight on Christmas Eve 2017, it is my favorite of my annual Christmas Eve posts, so I wanted to share it again this year! I hope you enjoy… All too often pilots take flying … Continue reading →
On this day in 2013 the first post on this blog, which has become ReviewBeforeFlight, was made… It was a simple “launch post” but that’s led to more than 230 posts on a variety of aviation related, thought-provoking topics! It’s … Continue reading →
Each year Santa makes the most epic general aviation flight of the year! I’ve written about this previously (HERE and HERE). Santa takes off and lands in a variety of places and makes deliveries across the globe. This includes millions of deliveries … Continue reading →
On February 2nd, 2019 there was a meeting at the Barnstable Municipal Airport about the formation of a local Experimental Aircraft Association chapter. Having been an EAA member for some time, including with Chapter 534 is Central Florida during my … Continue reading →
It was a dark night in the Midwest, the skies were clear and the moon above the horizon but there was little in the way of visual reference for an unfamiliar New England pilot to see. It was sometime close … Continue reading →
Roger Lee was the Chief Pilot for KING Aviation-Mansfield for many years before retiring to Maine. I learned of Roger’s passing on social media a few weeks ago, however it wasn’t until just recently that I found his obituary and … Continue reading →
Today is ReviewBeforeFlight‘s 5th birthday; and that’s amazing if you ask me! I spent quite some time trying to determine how I was going to mark the occasion, but not long ago I was searching through pictures from my years … Continue reading →