Six years at altitude and still writing about life on the airways.
I fly about 430,000 miles annually; that would be 2,580,000 miles since I began this poor little blog. I have safely carried 260,000 passengers to their destinations without denting aluminum... Knock on wood.
Life on the Line continues...
62 comments:
Thanks for blogging! Your posts are very interesting for this wanna-be pilot.
An interesting take on life as an airline pilot....
Thanks Captain.
Thanks for writing.
Happy anniversary, Captain Dave! Here's to another six (or more) years ... thanks for sharing your passion with us.
CFII Rich in Mpls.
Here's to 6 more years! Your blogs are the best Capt Dave!!
Thank you Cpt Dave!
Greetings from the the other side of the world!
And I have been reading for... mmmm, maybe three years. Thank you. Your blog is exactly the type that makes reading blogs a peek into a better future.
Congratulations and thanks for blogging Dave!
Don't forget to count us, Dave. You've been carrying us along with you, too.
Looking forward to more high flying.
Congratulations.
Happy Anniversary, Dave!
Don't worry about denting the aluminum - us rampers are quite capable of doing that ourselves ;)
...And I've enjoyed every one of them!
Congratulations, Dave, on your continued safety record and airmanship.
Six years of FL390 and it keeps getting better and better. That means I've been 'flying' with you for almost five years.
Thank you, on behalf of your fan club, for pushing on with blogging - especially at those times when you might have tired of it. You have added immeasurable pleasure to many lives.
May God keep the air flowing over your wings, open for you a safe passage between storms, keep the anti-freeze on your wings as long as you need, give a clear head in busy skies, and amazing fuel readings that make you smile.
And may God-speed you home to your beautiful wife of your youth!
Noella
Happy Anniversary!
May you always have happy landings.
Best wishes,
Monica B.
:)
Many thanks for the posts Captain.. i always enjoy the blogs and love the pictures you post too...
Congratulations Captain Dave! Glad to have been along for the virtual ride with you.
For making me realise exactly what blogs were invented for.
Thanks Captain.
You paint beautiful pictures with your words. That is a wonderful gift.
Really enjoy your writing. Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much for all of the posts. they really really keep me motivated to become an airline pilot. As rich Gordon said. Heres to many more!
Thank you for putting a human face on your profession. The paying and taxpaying public need to understand that big systems are run by people and that those people all try their best to do a good job.
You will never fly me, and I hope that I will never see you in my court, but here's to both of us staying out of trouble.
Dave, you've taken me through my private and instrument - here's to your ever inspiring entries to take me through my commercial, CFI, MEI, CFII, MEII, first job, and ATP. Hmmm...sounds like you have a lot of work ahead of you :)
The best blog ever. New comer here, only been following for a couple of months but I already read the past six years archived. I'm just about to finish my CPL and it's always an absolute joy to read you. Hopefully we'll meet someday and share a one hundred-dollar burger in an airport somewhere.
Happy flying to all!
Santiago
May you always have:
Fuel in the tank.
Runway in front of you.
Altitude below.
I, and I think many with me, hope that you will continue for many of more millions of miles before you reserve your spot in the Captains seat of blog-heaven.. But then you'll have to start the memoars..
I really enjoy reading your carefully chosen words. Your passion for what you do is admirable.
I'm hoping to be flying the Fi-Fi in a not too distant future. But as with everything, patience is a virtue.. I can't wait to see that altimeter wind up as the ground is left behind and I'm soaring towards the flightlevels..
Thank you Cap' for your invaluable insights!
Thomas, Dubai
ps. Tech question, you say you pitch 18 deg in the '19, what's the value for the '20 and the '21.. I mean, 18 deg nose up is rocket-ship style..
Thanks Captain!! Keep up the great work.
What Noella said. Lol and thanks... I expect you to fly well because you choose to. What makes me smile is the eloquence that you're able to express yourself with. ..and the photos. Seriously- wow! ~D
I suspect that a good number of visitors to your blog know the identities of Yeager and Ripley, but few know of the leadership and heroics of Col. Robin Olds of the 8th TFW, Ubon Thailand during the Vietnam war.
It stirs me every time I see you honor him on your blog.
Happy Fly-Day! You are such a pleasure to read each and every time. Thanks for the blog. I often post them on my FB page and they are always a 'like-it' hit!
Congrats Captain.
Consider me one of your "frequent flyers" here on your blog.
Keep up the great work here and in the air.
We who read you salute you.
Thank you for all your effort Capt Dave.
Only thing left to say is
Kick the tyres and light the fires
Ian
Australia
Dear Captain Dave (with Capital C),
Sometime ago, a warm rainy evening in front of my desktop 'Fi-Fi wanna be pilot' a blog that caught my attention appeared on the screen. Your writing was going on for at least 5 years at that time, but for some reason (and the reason is obviously the passion that we share), I couldn't stop reading, and 2 days and many coffes later I catched up to the latest stories. A relief whisper after your almost 1 month absence came when I saw a new story around, and now... 6th birthday for the Captain's blog and the faithful Fi-Fi's that usually follow your commands.
Finding this place where you share your 'life on the line' stories has renewed once again my soul's love for airplanes, sky and the people that make this big world smaller.
Keep going Captain... don't calculate how many miles, just keep enjoying ;)
Cheers from South... Very South...
Thanks for sharing, very enjoyable.
Thanks Dave!! Please don't stop!!
Your blog is honestly one of the highlights of my week. Never fails to cheer one up despite however dodgy a day one has.
Hear hear! Of all the blogs I read on a regular basis, yours is the only one that actually makes me happy just seeing that there's a new post. And the posts are always top-notch!
Thanks for the great work, and keep it up, and if you're ever scheduled to land in this neck of the woods (you won't be--not with our tiny little airport), let me know--first beer is on me! (Or coffee, if it's a short turnaround...:-) )
I read every post, each time I am looking forward for another, I enjoy every word! You are amazing, Captain, keep up the wonderful work, in the cockpit and at the keyboard. Even though I don't comment very much, I'm still here, waiting for a new post.
And also I want to thank the people that can find their words to comment on your posts, because (as a non-english speaker myself), I know I cannot express my thoughts as you do! And because each time I read one of your posts, I keep dreaming with my eyes open for dozens of minutes...
Happy landings, Captain!
Hey (C)aptain Dave!
BON ANNIVERSAIRE !!
I haven't found another blog that so "does it" for me.
Forgive my prompts when you seem to me to be toooooooooooooooo earth-bound.....and thanks for your patience.
I knock on wood with you and so appreciate the enthusiasm for what you do, and for your willingness to take us all along with you.
Feel very free to send us photos of your cat and your JDM and your swimming pool(...which you took so long to build) and....and....and....(you fill in the gaps).
Alles van die beste (as we say in good old S.A. which, translated, means: All the best).
Sincerely
Bev - From blue-sky'd Cape Town
P.S.
I take it you're winging over for the World Cup... ?!!
Thank for writing Captain Dave. This blog is awesome.
Six years and I've just found your blog - I've got some catching up to do :)
Love your writings Capt. Dave - long may you continue.
Thanks from a Flight Sim Airbus jockey.
Keep up the great work!
Well done.
Congrats, Cap'n Dave...
We are, however, about the same age. So, rather than hear about how old you sometimes feel, I'm going to wish instead for many more fruitful years of flying and blogging. May we both be happy, un-grumpy old men with the wives of our youths...
Kevin
This 'poor little blog' of yours is my FAVOURITE Blog !!!! Am sure most of the regular visitors will agree with me. Congratulations Capt!
CONGRATULATIONS !!!! Your blog has been smashing success - I have read it regularly the past few years. Thanks you Captain for sharing the cockpit with all of us ! Life on the line continues :)
Keep it coming Captain! Your posts inspire a pilot wannabe.
Deplaning from an A-320 last week I encountered a rather attentive Captain standing in front of the flight deck and greeting each passenger. Remarking as I always do on some aspect of the flight that was most impressive - in this case the sweetly-greased landing - I thought of you and your blog. This airman had clearly been around the circuit for a while and possessed wise eyes and evoked a good heart, the same that we readers have met here.
See what your words have done? They bring us a consciousness of the skills and dedication that embody your profession.
Thanks for the years here. We who are passengers have a greater understanding of what rides on your shoulders, besides the epaulets.
Captain: A great blog.
Congratulations on your blogiversary!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Please keep it up. And publish the book when you're done. Best writing about work/profession I've ever read. And some of the best short writing, period.
Congratulations, Captain Dave!
Tim
I've posted this before, but it bears repeating:
Billy Collins, Poet Laureate of the United States, had this to say about poetry (from a Boeing radio commercial from years ago):
'Whenever I begin to write a poem, the first thing I want the poem to do is clear the trees at the end of the runway. In other words, I think of a poem as a journey, a flight of the imagination which can transport the reader from the familiar to the mysterious, sometimes in the space of a dozen lines or so. Poetry for me is a kind of travel writing -travel writing of the highest order because it provides not only a change of scenery, but a change of consciousness. The poem's music and its rhythms combine to form the sound track to these mental excursions which carry us in two directions at once: out into the world and back into ourselves, for we read poetry not so much to discover who the poet is as to discover who we are. No wonder John Keats thought of poems as journeys into "realms of gold.
Many of us, unfortunately, have had our love of poetry beaten out of us at school because the entire emphasis was on interpretation. Too many teachers and students want to tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They want only to know what a poem means, but a better question for me is "where is the poem taking me?" and "why am I willing to follow?"
Poetry is always waiting there on the shelves, ready to carry us up over the treetops and into fresh dimensions. Many people today seem to be coming back to poetry. Some are even becoming frequent poetry travelers. But no matter how popular or how neglected poetry seems to be at any given moment, we should always remember that poetry is the only recorded history we have of the human heart.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Of course, *C*aptain Dave, your blog is not written in metered rhyming couplets, but hey, every post -- from day one -- has gotten us over the trees at the end of the runway, taken us somewhere vitally wonderful, and returned us safely grounded, but not quite the same as we were before.
Wow! What a ride!
If I were a talented wordsmith, I'd write something eloquent, thoughtful and original. As I'm not, I'll simply echo the thoughts of k1mgy's last two beautifully worded paragraphs.
Thanks, Captain Dave.
Congratulations and thanks for writing!
Thanks for writing. I've throughly enjoyed reading every entry. Keep it up!!
The best blog as a business traveller! Thanks Captain and keep up the great work.
Fairly new reader here...
(really enjoyed the "catch-up"
Thank you for every single post.
Wow! :)
Giulia
Keep em coming. Can't get enough.
Many thanks from an Aussie fan
Even just 50 words from Captain Dave elicits 53 comments (signed) to date!
Well done, Dave!
Well done, FL390 community!
Congrats on the last 6 years! I have read each and every one of your posts since I discovered them in 2006. You fly the flagship aviation blog and I have thoroughly enjoyed every flight you have allowed us to board.
Keep it up Captain, you are getting closer and closer to Ernest Gann.
Hi from Sweden!
I found your blogg and it is very interesting!
Just have two questions. For what airline do you work for? and where is your station based?
Keep on blogging!
// Marcus
gyllis.blogg.se
Congratulations and thank you Captain for a very interesting blog!
Happy contrails!
Tobias
Sweden
Amidst all the turbulence of the news and opinion blogs I read, yours stands out as my "vacation" blog where I can go to relax for a few minutes. Your writing is interesting, engaging and evokes mental images of similar experiences from the "pax perspective." Keep flying and keep writing!
Hooray for six years! I've been reading for about 4 of those, and I still check often for new posts. Here's to many more years!
Captain Dave,
Thanks for all the great blogs and allowing us to join you on six years worth of experiences.
I only discovered your blog recently but have nearly completed reading them all, in backwards chronological order.
Congrats!
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