Kung Hindi Tayo, Sino Pa?

Two million people joined the funeral march behind Ninoy’s casket in August, 1983.
The Times Journal headline the next day was “One Killed By Lightning At Luneta”.  There was not one single mention in the Marcos-controlled media that half the population of Manila teetered between grief and bitter anger.
  
  
             
     
    

Confetti poured down on Ayala today, and [...]

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Like Father Like Son

I was struggling to match Carlo’s poignant Fathers Day article, filled with deep and subtle messages.  I’ve given up.  Tail end of a four-city business trip.  Too many meetings, hotels, overhead bins, airport check-ins, swine flu scans.  Too tired.
Too many things to say.
So I’ve taken advantage of the power outlet and LAN port in this [...]

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A Message from a (Newly) Adult Son

Carlo flew his first solo on Fathers Day, 2006.  As far Tonet can remember, Carlo’s enduring dreams were of commanding the Starship Enterprise.  He wasn’t the type to fly an X-Wing down an abyss into the Death Star.  More a strategic Captain who backed up his diplomacy with proton torpedoes.
As Carlo and Tonet flew on downwind at Omni today, a taxiing US Air Force C-130 came on the [...]

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The Invisible Important Thing

In January 2008, over a year ago, Carlo finally flew with Meynard. 
How time flies!  I remember every moment — watching him taxi away in the Decathlon with Meynard, and again in the Cessna 152.  And then watching him taxi back, cool as a cucumber, both times.
Carlo wrote about it four months later, April 2008, in Bangkok. 
It is [...]

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Reflections on a Year of Crosswinds

  
  
  
I’ve been had.
–  Tonet
  
  
  
  
Well, I have to say that my plan worked perfectly.
Even before he became a pilot, I always knew that Dad would make an amazing writer.  An amazing storyteller.  It was an easy conclusion to come to, as I have been his most rapt audience since before I could [...]

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I Have Found My Heaven. Perhaps You’ve Also Found Yours.

 
Yesterday was Windwalker’s birthday.  His wife Audine hit him with a surprise party, with lots of friends, fellow pilots and aviation enthusiasts.

It’s the perfect time to post his essay on what he finds beautiful about flying.  First posted on the PFSG Forum when I was taking my IFR course with Meynard.  
  
  
  
I agree 100% that an IFR rating isn’t [...]

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Merry Christmas!!

It’s been a fine year!
Our readership soared by 50% since last Christmas.
We hope you all find here what you seek.
 

We had guest writers this year.  More to come.
Carlo exceeded 100 flying hours.  Finished college.  And found a very special person.
Tonet reached most of his personal goals.  He needs to lose 2 kgs before the New Year. 
 
 
 Both of us have many people [...]

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Your Cessna 152. My A320. Wanna Know the Difference?

Windwalker first wrote this on the PFSG Forum on July 4, 2008, under the thread, “Why I Hate Airline Flights.”  It’s a great essay on what differentiates real pilots from those who ride in airplanes.
   
  
Tonet.   Let’s forget for a while that you are an aviation enthusiast with a passion for flight.   Since when was airline flying [...]

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“You Can Be My Wingman Any Time”

  
  
  
Carlo was born when the movie Top Gun first came out, in 1986.  Hard to believe that 22 years have gone by.  Crocodile Dundee, Sigourney Weaver and Aliens, Mr. T’s A-Team and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera were terrorizing  audiences worldwide.  Chernobyl and the Shuttle Challenger were the real-life horror stories.  CD [...]

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The Family Jules

I had three sisters and wished for a brother all my youth.  My penance is to have three sons.  Now I treat them like the brothers I always wanted.  The upside is they need to do everything I say.  The downside is, they get their allowance from me.
But this isn’t a “Fatherhood” site, so I’ll stick [...]

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It’s DONE, baybee!!! – One Year Later

What a difference a year makes.  It’s now a year and a week since my original “It’s DONE Baybee!” photo essay!  Here are a few glimpses of what’s transpired.
 

In the three years since I took a leap of faith and switched to English Literature, this lovable bunch has gone from a bunch of enthusiastic strangers [...]

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The Film Club

Once in a while, a book comes along that you wish came 20 years ago.  “If only I had known… .” 
On a flight to Amsterdam, that book hit my heart like a hammer.  I was going to post another article here about flying.  But I must get this hammer off my chest.  If you read but one book this year, do this one.  Warning:  Dads with [...]

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‘Twas the Night Before Christmas … Aviation Style

I met Windwalker six years ago, when he was an out-of-work pilot.  We would have coffee at Figaro’s, talking incessantly about flying.   
Today he is an A320 Captain for a major airline in the Philippines (not THAT one).  He went from DC-9 First Officer to A320 Captain in less than 5 years, and is a two-time consecutive Safety Pilot of the Year Awardee. 
He posted [...]

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My Secret Lives

    
I was a World War II pilot.  I flew P-40s with the Flying Tigers in China.  I survived bombing missions over Europe, in Avro Lancasters and B-17 Flying Fortresses.  I tangled with Zeros in Wildcats and Hellcats in the Pacific.
I also flew F-4s Phantoms over Hanoi and F-14s over the Med.  And biplanes, in World War I.
These were [...]

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Going Away

I’ve read a lot of flying stories.  Hundreds.  Maybe tens of hundreds.  I’ve been reading flying stories since I was a very small boy.
 No flying story ever made me cry.
(The One Six Right trailer did make my eyes water, but that was because I had not flown for months, and the Enya soundtrack behind the [...]

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In Life, Two Things are Certain…

Carlo came to Bangkok and brought this curious story, written in longhand on a McDonald’s paper placemat, in his handwriting.  
He wrote it as a stream of consciousness.  Direct.  Only a few crossed out words.
Picasso paid for his cafe bills by casually sketching masterpieces on the back of table napkins.  One day this story will become a collector’s item. 
And I (who [...]

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Angelina

Rod Machado’s Private Pilot Handbook lists famous people who hold pilot certificates.  Included are Hollywood personalities like John Travolta, Kurt Russel, Tom Cruise, Sidney Pollack, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Michael J. Fox, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Tonet and Carlo….
Recently, Vogue ran a cover story on an aviatrix whose drop-dead sultry looks have been scorched into millions of feverish juvenile [...]

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Nichole

We did promise guest writers here. 
Allow us to introduce Nichole, one of the women I love most in my life.  Alas, she lives far away in California.  A swimmer, a gymnast, a chess prodigy, a pianist, and a fan of airplanes, Nichole is much more accomplished than the Belly Dancer!
This is Nichole’s first contribution.  Welcome, Nichole!
   [...]

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Megacyles, Apartment Life, and Ulysses: A Portrait of the College Junior as a Young Pilot

Ladies and gentlemen, I have bad news.
Carlo is dead.  Nearly.  Si Carlo’y malapit nang mamatay.  At last, the endless charges of brainlessness spewed at him by his opponents have come true, for in an effort to simultaneously review for both his Private Pilot License examinations and a test on James Joyce’s Ulysses, Carlo’s brain suffered from a [...]

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The Belly Dancer

 
 
The place was exotic.  I sat in a silk dining tent adorned with Persian carpets and feather pillows, under a Moorish arch.  Paraffin lamps burned on the table.  They plied me with a spread of olives, dates and a glass of arak.  Dinner was Shanklish goat cheese, lamb kebbeh, fried quail.  There was a hookah [...]

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My Dad And His Delicious Airplane Tales

My Dad was in High School during World War 2.  He lived in Paco.  He was shanghaied into working for the Japanese at Nielson airfield.  The runway at Nielson later became Paseo de Roxas Avenue.  The large ramp became Ayala Avenue.  You can see a history of Nielson Field here.
Dad was put to work helping overhaul Mitsubishi engines [...]

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