About us

We believe that by sharing personal experiences we gain insight and become better pilots. So we created this website where students, seasoned pilots, and everyone in-between can share their experiences with aviation in an easy to read, beautiful way. Our hope is that you will follow our site, read these heartfelt articles and continue to become the safest, most proficient pilot possible.

John Peltier

John has been an aviation enthusiast since the age of ten. After countless hours in front of the flight simulator on the family computer, he finally earned his fixed-wing license right before joining the Air Force. There, served as an F-15E Instructor Weapon Systems Officer for ten years, obtaining 1,600 flight hours over two deployments to Afghanistan and well over 100 combat missions flying Close Air Support. Once in the civilian world, John made the leap to helicopters, going all the way through CFI-I in the unforgiving flight training environment presented by the mountains around Lake Tahoe. John is an avid backpacker, sailor, and photographer; follow his non-flying adventures on his website, by clicking the button below.
An aircraft canopy after a bird strike

My Scariest Bird Strike

Birds and Planes Don’t Mix My scariest bird strike (yes I’ve had ...

The Mi-26, the world's largest helicopter

Mi-26: Inside the World’s Largest Helicopter

All About the Mi-26 If you follow the aviation industry at all ...

Piper Arrow in flight

Piper Arrow

Piper Arrow: Continually Refining a Winning Design Airplane manufacturers often find that ...

A Pilatus PC-6 Porter in flight over Switzerland

Pilatus PC-6 Porter

The Pilatus PC-6 Porter: Designed to Do It All If you watch ...

piper aztec - piper apache

The Piper Apache and Piper Aztec: Birds of a Feather

What is the Difference Between the Piper Apache and Piper Aztec? Is ...

Piper PA-34 Seneca

Piper PA-34 Seneca: One of the Last of It’s Kind

Piper PA-34 Seneca: One of the Last of It’s Kind The Piper ...

UAS Operator flying a drone, one of many types of unmanned aerial systems

Unmanned Aerial Systems: Rules any UAS Operator Should Know

The Current State of Rules for Unmanned Aerial Systems It’s safe to ...

A Robinson R22 Helicopter flying.

The Robinson R22 Helicopter: All About Economy of Operation

The Birth of the Robinson R22 Helicopter In the early 1970s, Frank ...

A Dragonfly Helicopter in flight

How Muscle Memory Almost Killed Me And Then Saved Me

Learning to Deal with Mast Bumping and Other Low-G Problems It was ...

A Robinson R-22 Helicopter in flight.

SFAR 73: A Rule Unlike Any Other in Aviation

SFAR 23 was a bloody start for Robinson Helicopters. Pilots of Robinson ...