Jim Manley claims two professional passions - flying and writing. He flew instruction, air taxi and air-attack for the US Forest Service before joining MAF. Then he served 17 years in Ecuador as a pilot, radio tech and program manager. He’s also published numerous articles and his first book, Call For News, came off the presses in Dec 2010.
Amrit’s neighborhood, uncrowded on a Sunday morning.
Ajay, our guide, led Regina and me down an alley in New Delhi, India. The Sunday morning air carried typical India smog in a narrow ribbon of sky above. We stopped, pushed open a narrow wooden door on the left, and entered a small courtyard. Singing, punctuated […]
When opposites collide, fragments fly. Order degenerates to chaos. No wonder we fight to avoid crashes. Take, for instance, the contradiction between the two ways people process information—literate-style and oral-style. Neither intelligence nor education matters. Twenty percent of us in the world would rather read than listen, but 80% would rather listen than read. We […]
I loved flying Ecuadorian jungle kids. They reveled in life, not yet acquiring their elders’ stoicism. At the village airstrips, girls moved in tight, giggling knots. Boys ganged, separated, then ganged again at each new wonder. They spoke whisper soft, peering, pointing, touching tentatively, watching me for any sign. In the midst of adult conversations, […]
We’re all flat-landers stuck in two dimensions. Doesn’t matter if we live in the mountains. We’re glued to Earth’s undulating surface, meticulously following its ups and downs. That restraint does grant security. We need concern ourselves only with the challenges of moving left or right, forward or back. Vertical decisions fade to choosing stairs or […]
Jim Manley served 17 years in Ecuador as a pilot, radio tech and program manager. He is now assigned to Learning Technologies serving at MAF Headquarters in Nampa, Idaho.
I stand at the plane’s open door. My helmet hangs in the cockpit, its cables dangling to panel connectors. My navigation notes lay on the clipboard over […]
The pilot’s seat gives great perspective. Even in bad weather, the instruments tell me everything I need to know. Blue, in the round gage directly in front, represents sky; black, the ground; white dividing line, the horizon. So, the center white dot means my nose is below the horizon. The short lines left and right, […]