Ruling the Sky

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Ruling the Sky - I was having some pleasant chats here on the website with Mill Otter, @PGNtwo. We were going into it about life on the airfield and above it back in "the old days." Our pal, @PGNtwo, used to be a flight dispatcher, whereas I was a sometimes pilot of a little, single-engine cloud chaser. About that time I remembered that some of the flight tools were still hiding around my messy office, and I mentioned that in our back and forth commenting. I am positive that I could not remember how to use the things today, for flight training for me was right close to fifty years ago. Even so, I went looking for the things. Looked into this desk drawer, into that file cabinet, that box on the book shelf by the window - looking, looking, looking. And then I found them. It was a whole lot like meeting up with some friends you knew from a vacation you had in a foreign land many years ago. I recognized all of them, but to no surprise at all, I could no longer remember how to speak in their language. Even so, I made photos of five of those flight tools for you to see. Complicated-looking rascals, aren't they? Back in those days we did not have nice digital computers as we now use for almost anything and everything. I don't know for certain, but my guess is that our flight tools from back in those days have all been replaced by the digital stuff today - probably by "apps" stuck into tiny tablet computers and "i-phone" gadgets. Type in the data and out comes the flight information - fuel consumption, headings, weather, even piddly stuff like recommended tire pressures, "omni" locations, and much more. Back then, we had to really work hard with our manual flight tools to come up with the answers. Today, just some tapping on a little keyboard, and there we go... * * * * * * * * * * Image: Some 1970's flight tools - Gus Kilthau photo * * * * * * * * * *