The contrast is like day and night. In the span of 24-hours I have written about two countries with vastly different views of the importance of aviation to their national future; Turkey and India.

In my story in today's International Herald Tribune, I interview folks who are agog over the rapid growth and ambitious plans of the formerly overlooked Turkish Airlines. Of Turkish, Ralph Anker of anna.aero writes Istanbul is "the most diverse hub in Europe."

While Turkey keeps sending its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to soothe trouble spots around the world maybe he ought to plan a stop in New Delhi and explain that when a nation's aviation system becomes a global laughing stock, you got problems baby!

IATA boss Tony Tyler, photo courtesy IATA

Oh, never mind, Tony Tyler already did.

Okay, so the incredibly handsome and dapper Tyler didn't put it exactly that way. He's a gentleman after all. But in a speech to India Aviation 2012 conference in Hyderabad he got thisclose calling the situation in India "critical" and saying, "I am not here to point fingers or apportion blame. The state of today’s Indian aviation industry is the result of a number of factors."

A number of factors, indeed. Let's just recap.

• Over the past year pilots flying for Air India, Spice Jet and IndiGo were charged with falsifying their flight hours
•  Air India battled additional charges that its pilots had broken "bottle to throttle" regulations. 
• Kingfisher canceled flights by the hundreds as regulators examine whether the airline is safe. 
• Practically every Indian airline is losing money
• A government audit showed inadequate training and flight monitoring are endemic to all Indian airlines 
• The Indian carriers are so unreliable as business partners, the Star Alliance boss, Jaan Albrecht told me in December, the global airline network would not be looking to add an Indian member in the near future.

All of this suggests the booming demand for air travel has outpaced Indian airlines' abilities to safety operate. That's the airlines' problem. What the government does about it becomes the problem of the Indian travelers who - like the rest of the world - are developing an appetite for mobility. It's also a problem for the growing number of visitors intrigued by or doing business in Incredible India.

Tyler's speech, which you can read here, presented a four-pronged plan of action and a call for a unified national aviation policy. It is all well couched in niceties of course. 

But if you ask undiplomatic me, it is terrible that a country with so much to offer can be languishing so far behind the pack in aviation. 
In fact, it's incredible.

CRAZY STUFF!
Despite scarey decompressions, a you-can-not-make-this-up event on a commuter flight to New York, the inexplicable but global trend of attacking pilots with lasers, an elevation of rhetoric in politics and in aviation and some truely appalling carrying-on by air travelers who really should know better (Gerard! Alec! Leisha! what got into you?) aviation was blessed this year with many, many happy landings.


SAFE FLIGHTS!

Let's start with the publication of the International Air Transport Association's new statistics that show commercial aviation around the world has never been safer.

Statistics being slippery, I don't normally tout this kind of thing, but Gunther Matschnigg IATA's safety guru makes the point that this is the continuation of an ongoing decline in air accidents and cites success in getting regulators and airlines to participate in standardized operational audits and sharing of safety information; learning from each other being a key factor in aviation safety.


NEW PLANES!

The Dreamliner in Addis Ababa in December

Two new airplanes took to the skies in 2011, the much redesigned and ever lovely B747 and the B787 Dreamliner, which may have seemed more like fantasy than dream after years of delay actually getting the airplane off the ground.

Capt. Desta Zeru flew the 787 into Addis Ababa

But what the hey? All seemed to be forgiven in Japan when All Nippon Airways' first 787 arrived in October (and was then promptly smashed into a boarding bridge).  Equally enthusiastic crowds greeted the 787's arrival in Addis Ababa in December. Ethiopian Airlines didn't actually take posession of the airplane, but one of their pilots did make history by left-seating it into the continent on its 'round the world tour. 

MERGER MANIA!

British Airways/Iberia, LAN Chile/TAM, Continental/United, Southwest/AirTran all tied the knot in 2011. And while setting up housekeeping together is working more easily for some than for others, take my mother-in-law's advice and remember, good marriages aren't built in a day.  Here are some other kinda love stories that kept the drama up at airports around the globe.

And if that's not enough kissy-kissy for you, the short-lived TV show Pan Am offered sexy story lines and prompted former Pan Am employees to reminisce about the glory days to the delight of many of us.

SWEET DREAMS!
After years and years of mind-numbing talk about pilot flight duty times, the Federal Aviation Administration finally issued a proposed a rule that should provide some needed shut-eye for pilots. Airline pilots anyway. Cargo pilots seem to be left to fend for themselves with the sandman and flight attendants, mechanics and air traffic controllers aren't part of the rule either, so this issue is far from ready to be put to bed.

GOOD NEWS FROM BAD TIMES!
There were glimmers of good news emerging from the terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March. Pilot Jim Karsh, who flies frequently into Japan generously kept FLYING LESSONS readers updated in the immediate aftermath. My friend and correspondent, Takeo Aizawa was gracious enough to provide  small details of how aviation was faring in Japan in the weeks that followed. I chose to see these reports as glimmers of hope for a  better tomorrow.

ALL THE BLESSINGS OF FLYING
When I thank God for the blessings of the year just past, I include these personal highlights:

• opportunities to watch airplanes, from the great vantage points at airports or airport hotels in Orlando, Chicago, Copenhagen, Bangkok and Dubai.

Steve Guenard takes me flying in N7995

• My experience flying above Manhattan with acrobatic pilot John Klatt, and touring Utah from a beautifully restored Stearman with Steve Guenard at the controls.

• The magnificent sight of a "pilot's halo"viewed while flying above the clouds on a Lufthansa A340. 

Most of all dear readers, I'm thankful to YOU for making FLYING LESSONS a part of your day and contributing your ideas, critiques and comments to make better this thing we love called flying. Happy New Year.

Photo courtesy Republic Airport

A sky as blue as one found in a child's storybook greeted the New York City area after Hurricane Irene, but missing from the picture early this morning was the normally ubiquitous presence of airplanes. To people living in this region - home to three major commercial airports and four major airports for business, charter and general aviation - the last time aviation shut down to this extent was September 11, 2001.

Sure, Irene had the airlines cancelling thousands of flights - running 24/7 they've got experience and manpower to handle it. (See this spooky shot of JFK Airport from Frank Van Haste's blog here.) When it comes to business and general aviation, it's the very unusual scenario that has them packing up and flying out of town.

The exodus began late last week and increased in intensity as the weather forecasts became more dire.
Planes were ferried to Pennsylvania and upstate New York and to anywhere their owners could find hangar space. "We didn't now how bad it was going to be, so we wanted to be sure we were prepared," said Michael Geiger, airport director at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, New York, which is home to more than 500 mostly single and twin engine piston aircraft.

Photo courtesy Republic Airport

Though Geiger didn't know how many, a number of planes were flown to inland airports. Shortly before our conversation this morning, five of the planes belonging to the flight school of Farmingdale State College had returned.

They were not so lucky at Teterboro Airport, just nine feet above sea level, the airport remained closed today as workers tried to clean up. The plan is to open the airport tomorrow. Wisely, there were no airplanes left on the ramp during the storm, and damage was confined to the airport.

Thirty-five miles northeast, Westchester County Airport is busy, busy, busy taking the flights intended for the New Jersey airport and closing the short runway - 11/29 - so that the planes destined for Teterboro have a place to park while waiting for the airport to reopen.

Photo by and with permission of Steve Ferguson

Good thing then, that the most dramatic post-Irene activity happened earlier today when three touring World War II warbirds belonging to the Collings Foundation departed after their annual visit to the airport went soggy. Airport executive and aviation enthusiast, Steve Ferguson was out on the airfield seeing them off and taking photos of the P-51 Mustang, the B-24 Liberator and B-17 Flying Fortress, all of which were in town for the annual Wings of Freedom visit.

Photo by and with permission of Steve Ferguson

Ordinarily, when the planes are here, the foundation sells walk-through tours, flight experiences and even flight training.  But on Saturday, when it became a wash-out, Landmark Aviation one of the FBOs at the airport did some shuffling in its hangar. "Landmark Aviation was very gracious to move some planes around in their hangars to make room," said Hunter Chaney marketing director for the foundation.


 Westchester is my local airport and I am accustomed to hearing the general aviation and regional traffic, so as I took my early morning walk it was odd to see the perfect flying conditions and hear everything but airplanes; the birds, the leaf blowers, the chain saws and the electric generators were all making their post-hurricane music, but I need not have worried. The corporate jets started making their presence known before I had my morning coffee and as I write this blog, even the noisy Piaggio is back.

Photo of HPN on Saturday by Chuck Allen

Some of  America's most active business airports would be - should be, having one of their most active weekends on this, the last weekend before the Labor Day holiday. Instead they look like this desolate scene at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York.

In anticipation of Hurricane Irene, Westchester, Republic and Teterboro are reporting airfields that have become ghost towns. My friend, Chuck Allen, a pilot and member of the Westchester Flying Club spend part of Saturday afternoon watching a lot of takeoffs...and no landings...as people moved their airplanes out of the path of the hurricane. 

"When it comes to weather, pilots usually pay attention," Chuck told me in an email after writing to share with me the very odd sight of these normally hectic airports with all but tumbleweeds rolling down the airfield by this evening. 

"Probably 70-80% of the planes normally parked at Panorama were not there," Chuck reported, referring to Panorama Flight Service, one of the fixed base operators at Westchester County.

Ian, working in the operations office at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, wouldn't even take a guess at how many planes were moved elsewhere in preparation for the storm, but he's the one who characterized the place as a "ghost town" this evening.

Photo of HPN on Saturday by Chuck Allen

Its not much of a stretch to imagine that general aviation and business airports from North Carolina to Massachusetts were also sending planes out at a steady clip. I'm guessing anyone inland with hangar space to spare has been approached by friends, friends-of-friends, and probably even complete strangers asking if - by squeezing and shuffling - more room could be made to put another airplane or two indoors.

"The airplanes on the field are either in hangars or tied down with tiedown hooks in the pavements," I was told by the operations officer at Republic Airport in Long Island, which will shut down if and when winds reach a sustained 65mph. 

In an email to members of the Meetup group for Northeast Pilots, Clark Burgard offered a number of helpful tips to airplane owners; including using ropes with some elasticity to allow for shock absorption and reminders to secure step ladders and chocks as well as planes. That small stuff can do big damage when it gets tossed around the airfield by high winds. Clark moved his plane to Rochester,  New York on Friday, an airport he chose because "it was out of the way of the storm, even if Irene tracked more inland."  

The last commercial flight to Westchester County Airport arrived at 6:00 p.m. Saturday and the airport will remain closed until Monday at 3:00 p.m., reflecting optimism that for all the wind and rain, Irene will not create lingering problems. Life back to normal by end of the day on Monday? We shall see.

What's the difference between a pilot and a jet engine? 

The engine stops whining when the plane is parked at the gate.

Just because airline pilots are prone to complain, doesn't mean that sometimes they don't have a legitimate beef.  When it comes to the merger of American Airlines and TWA 10 years ago, a federal jury has determined that the TWA pilots were indeed done wrong by their union, the Air Line Pilots Association.

Just how the union sold its members down the river is described in court documents.  But in brief, the TWA pilots claimed that ALPA betrayed them by promising not to fight American Airline's in-house union, the Allied Pilots Association, even though APA was insisting all the TWA pilots must go to the bottom of the seniority list.  

"Why would ALPA do this?" you might ask. Because it was hoping that when the dust settled, APA would mosey on over and rejoin ALPA, which it had left in 1963. The eleven thousand American pilots would have been an eye-popping infusion of new dues-paying members.

Lee Seham an expert who testified in the case put it this way,  "ALPA would be motivated to avoid the alienation of APA - the future prize - by minimizing the advocacy of TWA pilots."

There were more than 2,200 TWA pilots at the time American agreed to buy out the financially troubled aviation pioneer, once owned by Howard Hughes. If the TWA pilots went to the bottom of the senority list, they would be the first furloughed if things in the industry went bad. After September 11 things went very bad indeed and 1,200 of the former TWA pilots lost their jobs.

Alan Altman, now employed by JetBlue was one of them. He had been a first officer at TWA on the B767 at the time of the merger. When the TWA pilots found themselves far below new hires at American, and getting laid off while junior American pilots continued to fly, Alan said it was "a horrible experience," pointing out the irony of TWA's long standing involvement with the eighty year old union.

"Here we are, a founding member of ALPA and when we needed them, they turned their backs on us."

I sent emails to ALPA's spokeswoman and the union's lawyer Steven Fram, but neither replied to my questions.  From what I can cull from their filings in the lawsuit though, the union's defense was that TWA pilots needed to take a glass-is-half-full approach to their situation with APA. 

ALPA claimed that if the pilots hadn't accepted the my-way-or-the-highway stance of APA the entire merger would have gone down the drain. Without American willing to pick up the shreds of the battered airline, it would have gone out of business. Where would TWA pilots have been then? 

Nope, it is not a pretty picture this view of a union more obsessed with its own coffers than the survival of two thousand of its members - not a flattering look at APA either with its its take-it-or-leave-it intransigence.

But its the TWA pilots who are having the next-to-the-last laugh now. Last Wednesday, lawyers Allen Press and Joe Jacobson returned to St. Louis from New Jersey where the jury handed them their victory. They were  greeted at the airport by some of the pilots they represent. Alan Altman described the mood as "unbelievable" and "amazing" before concluding, "I can't even describe the feeling."

Former TWA pilots Jim Hartman and Glen Steineke ( (left and center) with their attorneys Press and  Jacobson at the St. Louis airport last week

It may feel good to have a jury confirm that an injustice has been done. But it doesn't put a dime into the pockets of the pilots. That won't happen until lawyers begin the complicated process of calculating - pilot by pilot - what each might have made if some more equitable form of integration had taken place back in 2000. 

Allen Press won't name a sum, but suggests the financial harm to his clients has been "huge." Having worked for a while with trial lawyers, I'm guessing Press will likely ask the court for many millions and just as likely it will be years before the final sum is determined and the case is closed. 

But there is no reason for other airlines, with mergers in the wings, not to pay attention to what a jury has unanimously determined to be unfair and keep that firmly in mind when its time to integrate their own pilot groups. 

Even not-so-frequent air travelers know about the hub and spoke system by now - the technique airlines use to funnel passengers through large central transfer points and on to their destinations. This gives people the opportunity to be in - but not necessarily to get out and enjoy such destinations as Frankfurt, Chicago, Hong Kong, Amsterdam and London.  

Recently, while traveling on Emirates from New Zealand to Dubai  I realized my flight stopped in Bangkok so I decided to get off the plane, spend a day seeing the city and continue my journey to the UAE a day later.

Narita's Jet Lag Cafe

I stumbled on the concept of a quick city visit in October 2010 when my sister and I were in Japan for the annual ISASI conference which was being held in Sapporo. In an abundance of caution, Lee scheduled us to fly from Sapporo to Narita the day before our flight back to the United States. “Lee,” I whined, what are we going to do in Narita for 24 hours?”

Well if you’ve ever visited Narita, you know how this story ends. If you haven’t, take my advice and go. (Especially now, when every single tourist is appreciated). The day we spent in Narita was one of the highlights of our trip. We stayed at the airline crew hotel, met up with some pilots and did a tour of aviation haunts in the quaint and historic center of town.

My sister Lee, biking in Narita

The following morning we bicycled through rice patties back into town passing by a tiny elaborate temple in the middle of the woods. But this story isn’t about Narita; at least not yet. 

This post is about Bangkok and it is the first of a number of other places I’m going to be writing about as I start my new Lovin’ the Hub feature.  With this post I am declaring myself the official reviewer and bestower of the title great airport hub city - celebrating those places around the world where there’s lots more to do than spend a layover sleeping in a waiting room or shopping in duty free. 

What makes a great airport city hub? Glad you asked. To make the cut it will 

·         Connect many international destinations

·         Provide easy access between airport and city center or local destination of interest

·         Offer opportunities to do something, see something and eat something without spending a lot of moolah,

·         Have a public transportation system that makes getting around manageable - even for first-time users

·         Have a hospitable hotel close by or actually on the airport property

Photo courtesy Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel

I had little time to figure out what I was going to do in Bangkok. I simply made the decision and went. So I was delighted to find out that Suvarnabhumi International Airport - completed in 2006 - is well-positioned to show off Bangkok to transiting passengers. If it is all part of some grander scheme to woo tourists into town and then leave’ em wanting more, well, it worked for me. 

I arrived at the Novotel Suvarnabhumi Hotel at four o’clock in the morning. Nevertheless, the reception clerk did not tell me that I was too early to check in. The Novotel understands that travelers can arrive anytime of the day or night and they’ve made accommodations with a program called 24 Hours Flexi. The clock starts ticking on check in and checkout time is 24 hours later. How sensible is that?

View of the airport from the train

Both the hotel and the airport are in easy walking distance to the high speed rail station to the city center. The trip takes 30 minutes and the train runs almost entirely above ground making a sweeping curve that seems designed to give riders as long and as luscious a view of the airport as possible. For your additional viewing pleasure, jumbo jets roar by while the train passes lush tropical scenery.

In hustling, bustling, crazily chaotic Bangkok, the BTS Skytrain connects some parts of the city, Chao Phraya River Express Boats connect others and for the adventuresome, there are city buses and private tuk-tuks. Safety specialists, let me just go on the record and say that the iconic three-wheeled, open-air tuk-tuk is not your ideal mode of transport.

Nevertheless, I had a great time riding around in one, visiting Standing Buddah, Happy Buddah and Lucky Buddah, part of a city-wide celebration that had tuk-tuk drivers offering free transport to tourists interested in getting a look-see at these amazingly elaborate temples. 

An entire day could be spent at the city’s museums and temples. But since passengers in transit have to watch the time, and my criteria calls for not just seeing something but doing something and eating something, I recommend Khao San Road or another of the many adorable areas where shops line one side of the sidewalk and affordable, delicious food is available from stalls lining the other side. 

Bangkok reportedly has wild nightlife and dinnertime cruises on the Chao Phraya River, but I was too tired to personally check them out. Instead I opted to run out the rest of my 24-hours with an authentic Thai meal at the Novotel's Sala Thai restaurant and a deep slumber not far from the hubbub of Suvarnabhumi Airport and Bangkok, a truly great airport hub city.

Sometimes romance shouldn't be discussed in the cockpit, and sometimes its vital that it is. That was the case on Wednesday when diamondback terrapins looking for romance began crossing an active runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

A couple of eagle-eyed American Eagle pilots blew the whistle on the amorous reptiles. Their call to the airport tower caused the temporary closing of the runway to relocate the critters on a mission to procreate. One of the pilots delayed by the closing can be heard on the radio frequency muttering, "Sufferin' succotash!" (So, so, mild, compared to what we've heard recently.)

John P.L. Kelly, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey told The New York Times, the turtles were crossing the runway to get to the other side because that's where they'd find an ideal place to "lay their eggs in the sand."

Photo courtesy Port Authority of NY and NJ

The turtle story is cute and has a happy ending. When it comes to wildlife interfering with flight operations, its not turtles but birds that are most likely to cause disaster.

Unlike bouts involving land critters, airplane versus bird encounters are usually at low-altitude. And the most dangerous time for this match is during takeoff, according to Richard Dolbeer, an ornithologist and aviation consultant who spoke to me after the successful Miracle on the Hudson landing of USAirways Flight 1549.

"On takeoff you’re trying to gain altitude and you’ve got critical decisions to make in terms of turning around and lining up on the runway. This is why bird strikes on takeoff are more likely to cause significant failures on the aircraft but also they’re more difficult for a pilot to manage,"  Richard said.

Try and imagine for example what it was like to be Roger Wutkl who was flying solo over Arizona when a bird crashed through the windscreen of his airplane, knocking his headset and glasses off and making a disgusting mess of the cockpit in November of 2009.

That was a busy month for bird strikes. From India to Brazil, Venezuela to Kenya airplanes were returning to airports in a hurry after flying into birds. (International Birdstrike Committee keeps a comprehensive list of events and a covey of related information on its website.)

Earlier this week Jim Hall, former chairman of the US National Transportation Safety Board wrote an opinion piece for the Times expressing alarm over the location of garbage transfer station very near New York's LaGuardia Airport. One does not need to be an expert in aviation or wildlife to know that some very big birds are attracted to garbage and this is going to cause problems at the airport.

I mentioned Jim's article while having dinner with Andy Lester, manager of New Zealand's Christchurch International Airport on Wednesday night which prompted Andy to invite me to see how his airport is minimizing bird hazards by planting bird and bug repellant grass in some of the fields adjacent to the runway.

Ford Robertson and endophyte grass at Christchurch airport

As I understand it, in a process developed by a Kiwi agricultural scientist working in cooperation with the airport, an endophyte fungus is introduced to a certain kind of grass called fescue and the end product is given the catchy name Grasslanz Technology.

It may look like grass but birds don't like it and neither, apparently do bugs, making fields of the stuff unlikely to attract bug eaters. This is the first full year of a large field test and Andy and Ford Robertson, manager of quality and security are monitoring it closely.

This afternoon, while Ford drove me around the perimeter of the airfield and I snapped photos, we saw several large magpies and some smaller birds on or near the airport but the Grasslanz test field was bird-free.  

Magpies hangin' at the airport

Christchurch airport officials are encouraged by their biological fix and consider themselves leaders in the development of an agricultural solution to an aviation issue.

Its not a silver bullet its not even romantic but it is a creative approach and one worth keeping an eye on, even an eagle-eye, for how it might be more widely applied in the future.

Thanks to a certain Aussie pilot and 100K others!

Its lovely, really it is, this view from one-hundred thousand. Not 100,000 feet silly, one-hundred thousand readers.

Thanks to you, and you and you, and so many others, FLYING LESSONS crossed this exciting threshold sometime during (my) Wednesday night in New Zealand.

Numbers being an arbitrary but nonetheless widely accepted gauge of progress, I am taking this opportunity to say THANK YOU! and provide a de-brief of some of FLYING LESSONS past destinations. I've sure had fun writing about them and I hope you've enjoyed reading about:

Idiotic journalists who savaged aviation in Time and top-ten-listed airline safety in USNews (as if!).

Qantas A380 Capt. Richard de Crespigny

Aviation success stories and a couple of heroes not associated with a certain dashing airline pilot-turned-television-commentator with the initials C.S. or even with a certain Qantas-captain who goes by the moniker Capt. Fantastic and who is still flying the Airbus A380 the largest commercial passenger airliner. ever.

Little accidents with big implications, and big accidents with big implications of which there were several; Air France #447, Qantas #32, Colgan #3407.

Big disasters that ended well thanks to multi-national cooperation.

And big projects like the magnificent runway at Madeira Island Airport underused but waiting for the world to discover.

The sorry state of affairs in emergency medical helicopter operations. The "we're saving lives" front story and the billion dollar back story.

Bad boy pilots and ewwww pilots and a flight attendant who pulled a Howard Beale before pulling the emergency door on a JetBlue flight.

Airport security, (yawn) sexy aviators (yeah!) and sexy and funny airport security (say what?)

Air New Zealand Beech 1900 arrival at Wellington Airport earlier this week

The tedium of commercial airline operations (can we change this pleeeze?) 

The thrill of stunt flying

The freedom of general aviation as celebrated every fourth of July at a tiny airport in Danbury, Connecticut. 

Flying has confounded, delighted, worried, amazed, teased and frustrated us for  more than a century. It also unites us, my wonderful readers. After all, what could prompt a glowing profile of one's mother-in-law other than the fact that mine was a welder on the World War 2 Corsair? 

So, thank you, gracias, shukran, danke, tika hoki, merci, arigatou and spasiba to each one of the 100,657 of you (as of this moment) for giving me the opportunity to reflect on the global, multi-faceted, miracle of flight.

Flying with Air National Guard Lieutenant Col.aerobatic pilot John Klatt

See the video of my flight below!

The best place to see an air show is on the ground and this is where several hundred thousand New Yorkers will be for the Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach on Memorial Day weekend. The best place to sit for the air show, however has to be the seat in front of Lieutenant Colonel John Klatt, on the aerobatic plane he flies for the Air National Guard.

When performing at shows across America, John flies in a Panzl S330  a 1,200 pound single seater - which makes it an inappropriate choice to invite a guest to ride along.

So today stunt pilot and John Klatt air show team member Bill Kerns was flying the Panzl to our starboard, a Bonanza chase plane was off to port carrying New York Times photographer Chang Lee and a CNN cameraman while John took me in the tandem Extra 300 L.

Yes, there was room for two in this plane, designed by German engineer Walter Extra.  It’s a snug fit and I was glad because when the Gs start running up and down like pianist jacked up on caffeine, what I really wanted was the airplane’s strong embrace.  

On our flight this morning over New York City and Long Island John gave a point by point explanation of how the airplane would accomplish each stunt he had planned. We did aileron rolls, snap rolls, torque rolls, barrel rolls, a hammer head turnaround, an Immelmann maneuver and some lovely loops.

 I know the loops were lovely because when the plane was nose down and I was staring at the Atlantic Ocean, I could see the plane making graceful curlicue shadows on the water.

Otherwise, I had no idea what all that fancy piloting looked like from the outside. I can only extrapolate from air shows I’ve seen in the past and You Tube videos of John’s  performances.

John’s a great pilot. His public relations staff, Rebecca Brosemer and Victoria Arocho are geniuses to offer him up to reporters for demonstration flights. A morning spent in his company and the entire world of aerobatic flying starts to make sense.

John Klatt photo John Klatt Airshow

I remember the first time I came to understand that planes fly because they are following physical laws, not defying them. Until today, though I didn’t realize that the same is true for stunt flying.

I love air shows. I’ve been to dozens of them over the years but I have to say until I got inside the plane with Klatt, I did not understand why a pilot chose to perform these seemingly suicidal acts. I failed to appreciate how aerodynamics, fluid dynamics, gyroscopic dynamics have been harnessed over the past century, enabling the air show pilot and the air show airplane of today.  It is nothing short of astonishing.

This is my takeaway from a morning spent backstage with the John Klatt Airshow. I feel a bit like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, who goes to bed in Kansas and wakes up in Technicolor. At the end of the movie, though, Dorothy pulls back the curtain to find the wizard is disappointingly less than she expected.

I have found the exact opposite. The man and the machine behind the dazzle of the air show, elevate the science and the artistry of aviation.

Tim Jarvis, Todd Kurth, Klatt, Rebecca Brosemer & Bill Kerns

See the video here