Why the Flying Fox

It is not a matter of vanity that I refer to myself, operations, et al, as 'Flying Fox'. The middle english word for "fox" is in fact 'tod'. Well if you do the basic analysis it becomes pretty reasonable that I am a 'flying tod' but lacking the panache' of 'fox' I chose the latter. My brother got the looks and I got the brains so I take what I can get.

Now I would make note that in contemporary english, the sort that we fought a revolution to avoid, the word 'tod' actually refers to a clump of sod. That doesn't really enthuse me and I only bring it up because I know that there are those out there who would actually Google 'tod' to see if i am telling the truth. Just make certain that you know it is Middle and not Contemporary english that we are discussing here.

Lastly if you recall the melancholy animated cartoon by the name of The Fox and the Hound (we actually have a well worn video of that here at the homestead) you will make note that the fox's name is in fact, Tod. So as far as the etymology goes I think we have covered it.

Now I began Flying Fox Services as just that, a service. I have a good day job, actually a couple of them, so I run FFS because I enjoy it, it provides a service and frankly, I just like things that fly, machines and people. I wanted to be an airline pilot but my eyesight and a very insightful family friend correctly steered me away from the predictable uncertainty of a life flying jets and the 'cattle' in the back. I cannot be more grateful that my desire to drive 747s was brainwashed out of me because lets face it, flying airliners is tough work. My buddy at Comair about had a nervous breakdown over the strike and I felt for him every time he called to talk about how messed up his airline had become. Not good.

But pilots, be they ATPs, students or that odd category known as military aviators, need advocates. They need people to help them pay attention to the critical system known as the Mark 1 Mod 0 Human Body because you can have all the checklists and emergency procedures (EPs) in the world to troubleshoot your Airbasher 9000 but it is all for naught if you happen to completely occlude that Left Anterior Descending Artery with a caffeine-nicotine-lack-of-exercise-induced blood clot while you are inside the marker on an ILS to minimums. Seriously. Happens a lot more than you think.

So Flying Fox is first and foremost about educating pilots about their health and debunking this absurd notion that pilots need to contract people fo hundreds of dollars to 'negotiate' a medical from the folks at Oklahoma City. I know a few of those guys and IF they had any spare time away from the 400,000 some odd medicals that they process every year, they definitely would not spend it trying to figure out ways to screw pilots out of medicals. They would be out playing golf or spending time with their kids or flying. The idea of OK City as a place to hamper pilots is a huge myth propogated by overpaid and oversupplied editors of popular flying magazines and pilots who are probably trying to hide stuff that they really ought to get checked out.

Believe me, I know pilots, I know how they think.

As well Flying Fox exists to promote aviation safety and enthusiasm for flying. I see perhaps 100 new flying students a year and we spend a considerable amount of time just talking about how cool it is that something like physics can cause a piece of aluminum to levitate off the ground. We talk sailplanes and jets and 172s and Cubs and SpaceShipOne, because, well as a child of the 60s, my world was Niel Armstong and Scott Crossfield and frankly, those guys rock!. I want to see the wonder in young people's hearts and minds that I felt as a child when an Apollo Capsule linked up with a Soyuz capsule 300 some miles above my childhood head in Norther Idaho. Reds and us shaking hands, IN SPACE! Wow!

I frnakly think it is a crime of the highest order that we eliminate our largest cities from GA activity because some commercial airliners were hijacked. We all well know that the White House is Cessna 150 proof. It is not a theory, it has been tested, so why are we worried about allowing people into College Park. Hey I did Iraq, I know what it is like to be scared of bombs, let's grow up, this is the United States. If Mohamed the militant islamo-fascist wants to detonate a dirty bomb over DC, well the fix for that is not a big red circle on a map, the fix for that is making sure Mohamed has no access to the 182 in the first place.

I know this because I know the late Alfred Schultz. What a great guy. Alfred had two air to air kills that he told me about at Sun and Fun one year. He got them in his Piper L-4 (Cub) during World War II by baiting a couple of Messerschmidts to follow him into the dirt. He pulled, they pushed, he won, they lost. Well, just think about 2 kg of plutonium, 250 pounds of high explosives, nap of the earth flight...come on, I am not going to complete the math problem here and I guarantee you that if Mohammed can figure out how to rig a Nokia cell phone to a couple of 155mm rounds (and he can because I have seen them) he can figure out the formula as well.

So we need some wonder and sanity and we need local flying programs to get kids excited about the uniquely American liberty of being able to fly an airplane regardless of social class or access to extremely expensive avionics.

Flying Fox also exists to be a resource for charity flying when needed. I encourage all of you to look into http://www.volunteerpilots.org/ because Small Planes Save Lives and the VPA is just the coolest group of people in the world with a great brunch every year up at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.

Lastly Flying Fox does some proprietary things on the side and if I have to explain what I mean by 'proprietary' then you probably don't really need to know what I mean by proprietary. Suffice it to say that ultimately it is for the benefit and future of the United States of America, the greatest nation in the history of the world. As a veteran, I feel proud to tell you that I have earned the right to make that claim.

So that is it in a nutshell. I am going to develop this blog and hopefully it will bring amusement, education and interest to everyone.

I would also mention that for several years now I have written an ad hoc column called the Joy of Flying, which I posted regularly at a great website called www.flightsim.com I am now moving that here and it will appear under the title Joy of Flying.

As well, I am an avid user of the flight simulator software known as x-plane. It is really a super program that is constantly under development and has an active user group and great modeling. I have been an owner since version 5.0 and it gets substantially better every time it is upgraded. Updates within versions are always free and the lead designer is always an email away. Austin Meyer is a great American because he has taken an idea, his liberty within the free market, listened to his users and made something work.

Spread the word around about my blog and I will respond and develop it as I see the trends and requests develop from readers.

Fly Safe

FF