Labor Day Explained

It's been a week since the horrific crash of a Learjet in west Palm Beach, Florida. The jet's occupants are, of course, gone. But this accident will live on the that Miami Center controller's mind until the end of his days.

My new friend, Ayal Shenkman, an Israeli F-16 pilot and history buff, visited the United States a few months ago to attend AirVenture and take in the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force for the opportunity to crawl around inside a classic B-17.He left the US for Israel realizing there was much more that created the airplane's success than just a solid airframe, engines and its Norden bombsight.

I was hired by Chicago Aerial Advertising when I was in my mid-20s to learn how to safely drag a huge airborne advertising display around Chicagoland with a tiny 150-hp Citabria as the tow airplaneIt turned out to be not only the adventure of my flying career, but also some of the most valuable stick and rudder training of my entire flying career. Over the course of two and a half years, I earned some incredible money for the time and also learned the intricacies of flying an airplane that regularly hung on the edge of a stall most of the time it was airborne. That meant learning to feel what an airplane was doing by using just my sense of touch, hearing and sight. There was no automation involved.This experience made me a better pilot later in life when the airplanes were much larger nearly fully automated jets. While the job was a little scary at times, nothing ever taught me to be the master of an airplane that way this one did.

Much about the American Labor movement has changed dramatically in the past 100 years. But some of the more unsavory aspects of labor remain exactly the same as they were a century ago.Here's why.

I reminisce about the adventure and the fun of adding a single-engine seaplane rating to my pilot certificate.

August 3 is the 45th anniversary of the infamous PATCO strike that cost 11,435 air traffic controllers their careers after they called a strike against the FAA.Nearly five decades later, the nation's air traffic control system remains short of enough controllers to keep the system humming like it did before the strike. And since August, 1981 air traffic numbers have tripled.Join Rob Mark as he blends a bit of aviation history with the realities of what the FAA is doing to make the ATC system work safely in 2026.

Ever wonder how pilots think during an emergency and why they never seem to panic? Listen as I describe what happened aboard a British Airways 747 flight when they encountered the ash cloud created by the eruption of a volcano on the island of Java.

At a recent CAP Squadron meeting, a cadet officer commented about how unsavory the schedules could be for pilots. Having spent much of my life in a cockpit, I took his comment rather personally.I thought more about his words over the next few days and came to realize that the aerospace industry really does need to get its act together to better balance an employee's personal life with their job if we want to attract more young people to the industry.

Rob's personal reflection on his lifelong fascination with space exploration and astronauts. It was recently highlighted by attendance at the Chicago premiere of Spacewoman, a documentary about Eileen Collins, a retired Air Force Colonel and the first woman to pilot and command a space shuttle. The story explores a bit of Rob's identity as a “space geek,” shaped by growing up during the era of the American space race, including the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. The author recalls admiration for astronauts such as Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, Gene Cernan, and Charlie Precourt, emphasizing the excitement and wonder of human spaceflight.The article concludes with the author admitting limited knowledge of international space programs, particularly Singapore’s efforts, before introducing aviation podcaster Grant McHerron, who attended the Singapore Air Show and offered to share his insights about the country’s developing space ambitions.

A routine instrument departure turns into a career-defining moment when poor cockpit communication and rushed decisions lead to a serious ATC deviation.In this episode, Rob Mark shares how one flight exposed the dangers of weak Crew Resource Management (CRM) - and the hard lesson that remaining silent can be just as risky as making the wrong call.