It’s funny to realize that you’ve been doing something for decades without even proposing it. Last month I realized that I created Fear of Landing exactly twenty years ago.
The original hook was a crazy dream: to fly to all the British Isles with one strip. The type of plan normally reserved for people who don’t have to pay for their own gas. It took me weeks to compile the list: thirty-eight islands that vaguely qualified as “British.” I achieved six.
I finally realized the reality of the cost and enormous amount of time the project involved, especially considering I was starting out in Spain. I’m still upset that I couldn’t get to Gibraltar, which would have been first, but at the time they didn’t accept direct flights from Spain except in emergencies.
The following year, I was invited to write a monthly article for Piper Flyer. As part of this, I discovered the wonders of having a deadline. I started updating Fear of Landing every Friday. By 2008, Fear of Landing was becoming something different: less about me, more of an information resource.
I think I found my first real accident analysis. I wrote about the death of a 16-year-old student pilot that really shocked me (and still sticks with me): Southend Inquest declares the accidental death of a student. In 2009, my main content was actively documenting aviation events. That year I had my first viral article: I posted photos of a plane eaten by a bear and repaired with duct tape. I discovered that people love disasters that they can fix with their own hands. FAA approved? It remained in my top ten publications for the next decade.
It’s been very hectic lately and I couldn’t find the time to properly mark the milestone, so it was a pleasant surprise when Janine Canillas reached out to do a feature on Fear of landing. He writes for AOPA (the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association), a huge US-based organization that advocates for general aviation pilots.
What was supposed to be a standard professional exchange quickly turned into a marathon chat. We talked for two hours, which is a long time to justify our life choices to a stranger. But it wasn’t just the fear of landing. We talked about flying lessons, writing, airplanes, and favorite moose.
I sent him my favorite photo of me with the Piper Saratoga. At first the Saratoga seemed like a fast and complicated plane, and at one point I openly accused it of trying to kill me. But you can tell we had become friends by the time that photo was taken by the way my hand rests possessively. I went back and reread the breakup letter I wrote to him when we sold the Saratoga. The only thing I will say is that I have never loved another plane like I loved that one.
Anyway! Enough of remembering. Go read Janine’s article: Lessons before the accident. It’s a version of Fear of Landing that almost makes sense.
