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by Capt Nick
The View from Our Side of the Cockpit Door
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- Apr 23, 202615 min
Basam Aggad Interview
We last spoke to Basam when he was doing his Jet Upset Training but now that he has his dream job it was appropriate that we should chat again on one of his London layovers. In particular, he is flying around a war zone which presents additional challenges to a civil airline pilot.   Basam in London near St Paul’s Cathedral   Post interview    
- Apr 23, 202618 min
RAF Form 414, Volume 36
A flock of seagulls had chosen that moment to break ground from the grass beside the runway and fly across our path. They disappeared under the nose as we climbed away and cleaned the aircraft up… no noise of an impact but then we noticed the No 2 engine’s N1 vibration number was pulsing and reading a bit high. So starts another Tale from my flying logbook.   Marauding seagulls at Shannon   The A340 Cockpit   Setting the landing flaps to Config 3   JFK VOR to 22L   The route LHR to HKG   <img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14768" loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-14768 size-large" src="https://airlinepilotguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/PT-LANDING-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://airlinepilotguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/PT-LANDING-980x551.jpg 980w, h
- Mar 19, 202616 min
RAF Form 414, Volume 37
The next tale from my RAF Logbook, albeit now being filled with civilian flights for Virgin Atlantic Airways…   A Virgin A340-300 going round the checkerboard at Kai TAk airport, Hong Kong.   The checkerboard approach from the flight deck.   The treasured Hong Kong landing authorisation card.   The A340 fuel tank layout.   The result of the Air France ground fire.   <img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14716" loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-14716 size-large" src="https://airlinepilotguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PT-IQALUIT-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://airlinepilotguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PT-IQALUIT-980x551.jpg 980w, https://airlinepilotguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PT-IQALUIT-480x270.jpg 480w"
- Mar 19, 202620 min
Fast Jets on the Front Line, Part 2
The second part of an interview with Alan Munro, retired RAF pilot and Cold War warrior, where we talk about his book… Fast Jets on the Front Line. A 19 Sqn F4 Phantom   A 228 OCU F4 Phantom   An RAF Chinook helicopter   The back seat of a Phantom   Berlin’s infamous Checkpoint Charlie   <img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14709" loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-14709 size-large" src="https://airlinepilotguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PT-WSS-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://airlinepilotguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PT-WSS-980x551.jpg 980w, https://airlinepilotguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PT-WSS-480x270.jpg 480w" sizes="auto, (min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 9
- Feb 3, 202619 min
Fast Jets on the Front Line
In this tale we listen to part of an interview with author Alan Munro who talks about his recent book, Fast Jets on the Front Line.   Interviewing Alan     The Gloster Javelin   A 29 Sqn F4 Phantom   The RAF’s Harrier GR1   Images are shown under the Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, Alan Munro, Hawker Siddeley and Nick Anderson.
- Feb 3, 202620 min
What’s in a Name?
A tale that might have been forgotten but here it is from APG670! This tale isn’t about me operating into the massive aviation hub of Chicago O’Hare Airport but of how it got its name. For that, I’m going to take you back into Chicago’s seedy past to the days of Prohibition and the notorious gangster, Al Capone. Enjoying a beer in Chicago!   Destroying beer during Prohibition.   Al Capone and Easy Eddie   Capone’s mug shot   The murder of Easy Eddie   <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-14626 size-large" src="https://airlinepilotguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/PT-BATTLESHIP-1024x576.jpg" alt="Easy Eddie's son, Edward" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://airlinepilotguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/PT-BATTLESHIP-980x551.jpg 980w, https://airlinepilotguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/PT-BATTLESHIP-480x270.jpg 480w" sizes="auto, (min-wid
- Aug 13, 202518 min
RAF Form 414, Vol 35
Delving into my log book yet again I recall thatI had flown a couple of supernumerary trips to John F Kennedy airport in New York, sitting in the back of the cockpit watching how it was done but now it was my turn to clamber into the hot seat to start my line training with Virgin Atlantic. I was also flying with the Chief Pilot so absolutely no pressure!   Compared with the Airbus A340, the old Boeings were beginning to look a bit like dinosaurs!   The confusion of aircraft flying over the Atlantic only really became apparent when they were all leaving contrails!   With the early MCDUs it was possible to outpace the processor that was trying to keep pace with your key presses.   Despite the plethora of satellites whizzing around the world, the world of aviation still often relied on old fashioned HF radios for communication.   The data we used to plot our position on maps came from the same source as that that guided the aircraft!   <div id="attachment_14446" style="width:
- May 26, 202519 min
Sabotage
From the French word saboter, sabotage refers to the act of bungling, botching or wrecking something, particularly for political or military aims. It is derived from the French word for a wooden shoe, a sabot and likely refers to clumsy work carried out by those peasants who clattered about in such simple footwear. The world of aviation escaped known acts of sabotage until 1933 when a sleek and streamlined Boeing 247 of United Air Lines Flight 23 taxied to the departure gate at Newark Airport to allow it’s passengers to embark. At a time when most airlines were flying flimsy wood and cloth biplanes that looked like old World War One bombers, and indeed many were, Boeing were ahead of the game. The Boeing 247   An early 247 with the forward sloping windshield flying for the Royal Air Force   Passengers embarking on a United 247 NC13345 which later crashed into a hill in dense fog and burned.     J Edgar Hoover’s letter closing down the sabotage investigation   Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Boeing, the SDASM, the RAF, United A
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