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Travel

59 posts
View from the right seat of the Cirrus. Storms near Bowie, Arizona. (Deborah Fallows)
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  • Travel

Summer in Our Towns

  • Deborah Fallows
  • August 7, 2023
How the summer of 2023 looks from the air and on the ground.
The path a regional jet took this past Thursday, after taking off from Dulles airport outside Washington and then quickly returning, following a clockwise route. The plane is ID’d on this map as Delta 3857, and its passengers had Delta tickets. On air-traffic frequencies it is called “SkyWest 3857,” the name of the Delta feeder airline. (This image is a screenshot from the AirNav RadarBox site.)
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  • Aviation

Cooperation, Calm, and Competence: This Is How It Sounds

  • James Fallows
  • February 1, 2022
In the skies over Dulles airport last week, pilots and controllers gave an example of grace under pressure.
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  • Aviation

The Quiet Competence That Makes the Country Run

  • James Fallows
  • October 20, 2021
Being "inside the clouds" is stressful. But when you break into the clear, you see things you might not have noticed before. A view of the "soft skills" part of America's human infrastructure, and their difference from those in China and elsewhere.
N435SR parked at its new home at the San Bernardino Airport in California (Deborah Fallows)
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  • Travel

The End of the Journey

  • Deborah Fallows
  • January 18, 2017
Arriving in Tucson, we felt the inklings of coming full circle with our American Futures project. Only one more leg of our journey, about 400 miles, before we reached our destination of…
Banking to the right, looking through the clouds toward the water and the ground. (Deborah Fallows)
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  • Aviation

In Flight

  • Deborah Fallows
  • January 17, 2017
We took off west from Demopolis, Alabama, prepared for a lot of flying ahead on this last journey for The Atlantic’s American Futures project. (First two installments in the series, taking us…
At the airport in Demopolis, paper mill in the background. (Deborah Fallows)
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  • Travel

Flying Into the Deep South

  • Deborah Fallows
  • January 16, 2017
We woke up in Demopolis, Alabama, on day two of the final journey of our American Futures series for The Atlantic. We were one day out of Washington D.C. (first installment here)…
Ready to go at KGAI. Brrrrrrr. The yellow cord is the electric engine-heater that had been plugged in through the previous frigid days, allowing the plane to start. It’s wrapped around the propeller to reduce the chances of forgetting to disconnect it before starting up. Around the plane are the 140 pounds’ worth of clothes, notes, machinery, and other possessions the plane could handle for its long trip.
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  • Aviation

Farewell to Washington

  • Deborah Fallows
  • January 15, 2017
Montgomery County traffic, Cirrus Four-Three-Five Sierra Romeo taking Runway One-Four, VFR (visual flight rules) departure to the west, Montgomery. Rolling down Runway 14 for takeoff from Montgomery County Airpark in…
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  • Travel

Happy New Year: See You in June

  • James Fallows
  • January 1, 2017
For me this is the third post of the day, and probably the last in this space for quite a while. Effective today, I’m beginning a five-month book-writing leave from online and print…
Plane wing flying in the clouds.
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  • Aviation

Life in the Air

  • Deborah Fallows
  • September 28, 2016
Getting from here to there by small plane
  • Aviation

From the Air Traffic Controller’s Perspective

  • James Fallows
  • June 30, 2016
Two days ago I mentioned the unflappable, multi-tasking and multi-dimensional competence with which an air-traffic controller at Denver’s Centennial airport handled a sudden shift in winds, and the resulting complete re-organization in…
The airspace that was the subject of a coordinated aerial ballet two days ago. The magenta line shows where pilots thought they would be going. The orange line shows where they ended up.
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  • Aviation

The Air Traffic Ballet

  • James Fallows
  • June 28, 2016
During our travels Deb has often mentioned our interest in, and nearly-all-times admiration for, the Air Traffic Controllers with whom we deal. One of her early posts, “Say Souls on Board,”…
About to land one week ago, on Runway 14 in Dodge City, Kansas.
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  • Aviation

View From the Right Seat

  • Deborah Fallows
  • June 28, 2016
During our more than 50,000 miles of flight for our American Futures project, I’ve sat in the “right seat” of our Cirrus SR22. That’s the official term for my spot in…
The twists of the White River, namesake of Whitewater, in Arkansas.
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  • Aviation

America by Air: Whitewater

  • James Fallows
  • June 18, 2016
In one way or another, all Clinton-era “scandals” trace back to Whitewater. That was the late-1970s Arkansas real estate deal that prompted an investigative crusade by the NYT during Bill Clinton’s presidential run in…
A few of the places we have been to so far. (The Atlantic)
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  • Travel

‘American Futures’ Master List: Some of the Hundreds of Places We Would Like to Go

  • James Fallows
  • February 13, 2016
Some of the Hundreds of Places We Would Like to Go "There is more going on, in more places, than you imagined."
Scene from Mojave Trails National Monument, one of three new protected areas President Obama created today (Jack Thompson for the Wildlands Conservancy)
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  • Travel

Welcome Our Newest National Monuments!

  • James Fallows
  • February 12, 2016
Often it seems that modern presidents can't do anything — except wage war. Here's a heartening exception.
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  • Aviation

Why an F-16 Hit a Cessna, and Some More-Upbeat Updates

  • James Fallows
  • July 22, 2015
Sobering news from the NTSB, but encouraging news from Maine to California

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