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 […]
“If a pig walks out on the runway … PORKCHOPS!”
“If a cow walks out on the runway … HAMBURGER!”
Chief Pilot Brian Shepson explained MAF’s landing procedures to a class of new MAF pilots in a way that simultaneously left my palms sweaty and mouth watering. These new pilots would be practicing these procedures on the […]
Talking myself down … or up, rather.
I’ll admit it—I get a little nervous flying.
I’m not scared of flying per se, but every time a plane I’m on starts to make its descent, I start going over everything I know about physics (which is not much)—thinking about how fast we are going, how high we […]
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Airplane that flew the generator into Zappallo Grande
As the small pickup backed towards the plane, my confidence wavered. The truck’s rear springs compressed completely. The tires rubbed wheel wells at every bump in our grass ramp. In its bed a diesel powered generator hunched like a docile beast whose size and weight substituted […]