Matt Claiborne

Many aviation dream jobs require high logged time as pilot-in-command. If you’ve recently earned your pilot’s license and want a job in aviation, many jobs will help you start your career. These are ten low hour pilot jobs to help you get started as a pilot. If you want to become an airline pilot, you’ll […]

The language of aviation worldwide is officially English—it is what all international pilots and air traffic controllers must converse in. But any pilot will tell you that the real language of aviation is the acronym.  The OBS is a selector knob on a navigational radio. It stands for the “Omni-Bearing Selector,” and it enables a […]

Air Force One is maybe the most recognizable single airplane in the world. The US President’s ride is a stylish and sleek Boeing 747 with an iconic blue paint job. Why is it blue, and why this particular shade of blue? The Kennedy administration picked the current paint colors used on presidential aircraft in the […]

Helicopters have proven themselves valuable in many ways. Since the very first helicopters were used in combat, the designs have been modified and tweaked. Now, many different types of helicopters serve all sorts of different missions. Today, let’s look at how the modern attack helicopter came to be. What was the First Attack Helicopter? While […]

Everyone knows that pilots need a lot of training to learn to fly their airplanes, right? Well, not only do pilots have to go to school to learn how to fly, but they also get trained in each different type of plane they fly. Imagine having to go to school just because you bought a […]

Ask most people what counts as a “cross-country flight,” and chances are most will say you need to fly from coast to coast. A flight from LA to New York? Yeah, that’s about as “cross-country” as you can get! What is the Definition of a Cross Country Flight? (According to FAA) For pilots, the term […]

One of the things that makes operating a helicopter so unique is its ability to hover in midair. With just the right control inputs, a helicopter can remain nearly motionless over the same spot on the earth. But how does it do this?  The helicopter’s rotor blades must produce an amount of lift equal to […]

Helicopters are complex flying machines that take special training to operate. Unlike airplanes, which are more or less stable once they’re off the ground, helicopters require constant control inputs from the pilot. Flying a helicopter straight ahead is a bit more involved than it is with an airplane.  Once the chopper is airborne in a […]

Helicopters are marvels of modern engineering. They are some of the most graceful and maneuverable aircraft in the world—but they’re also some of the most complex and most challenging to operate. Have you ever looked up and wondered how helicopters make lift? Where airplanes make lift by using their forward speed to move air over […]

Helicopters are wonders of modern engineering. But, to look at them, it’s a wonder that they fly at all. Learning to fly, you’ll quickly find that operating them is unlike any other piece of equipment. It’s not very hard to understand how they are able to fly, but it becomes more tricky when you wonder […]