I find myself mesmerized by the images on the screen.  Sitting at the computer, I am in awe of the vast amount of knowledge available electronically these days, without the need for the Dewey Decimal Classification or a card catalog. According to the Chicago Tribune, more than 200,000 libraries worldwide still use the Dewey Decimal System. If one is going to use the system, it will require getting ready, driving to the library, and searching through the card catalog. Today, we don’t have to do that; more accurately, we can search for information electronically from home on computers, tablets, and even our phones. How is this possible? It is because of all those young people from 80 years ago who literally saved the world.

Sixteen million Americans fought around the world while wearing the American uniform.  Of those, 416,800 died in combat.  During the latter part of 1945, eight million soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen came home to America.  They were one-half of the combat force who underwent the kind of hardships all of the generations to follow would never know.  Indeed, most of the returning servicemen did not speak of what they saw or of what they did in the service of their country.  But do not question this: this group of 18 to 24-year-old “kids” grew up very fast, lived hard, played hard, and for those unfortunate to not come home, died hard.

For the lucky ones who did come home, America was a new and exciting place.  There were colleges to attend, families to start, subdivisions to create, roads to build, and more.  These were the people who created all of the magnificent things we enjoy today.

Not content to sit idly by with their antiquated slide rules, they discovered a way to make computers work, build jet airplanes, construct the tallest buildings in the world, develop new navigational systems, take the phone off the kitchen wall and put it in our pockets; they made new cities and filled in acres of the west, they began trading on Wall Street setting records in the market, and they invented new industries.

As if that were not enough, on September 12, 1962, one of those young men challenged his fellow Americans to do something extraordinary— “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

And damn—they did it!

Yes, the boys and girls of World War II did, in fact, save the world from Nazism, fascism, and communism.  Then they went ahead and invented magnificent devices, new medical and surgical procedures, refined electricity, and other sources of power, among other innovations.  Those born in the period between 1915 to about 1927 were, in a word, extraordinary.

There is a high probability that the world will never again see the likes of these wonderful men and women.  Today they are in their mid-nineties.

What we need to do for them is simple.  We need to remember them, we need to recall their stories, and we need to study history.  We should never allow evil another chance to overcome and rule the world.

Studying history is such a simple way to avoid repeating mistakes.

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©2025 J. Clark

The post Every Now and Then first appeared on joeclarksblog.com.

I found the new house almost by accident. Steve, the guy who was living in it, was a contractor who was building another house on an adjacent taxiway, so I knew he would be selling the house he was living in. For me, it is the perfect bachelor pad: two bedrooms, two baths, and a huge hangar.

Steve built this house two years ago and here is one of the nicest things about him moving around the corner and running his dogs down the taxiway on occasion. The two dogs, Kiley and Sandy, are four and two years-old respectively. Consequently, Kiley has lived half of her life in this house and Sandy has only known this house as her home.

While I was moving in with the help of others, a friend and I were assembling storage racks in the hangar. Suddenly, a cold and wet nose poked into the back of my arm and startled me from behind. Sandy was a very sneaky dog! It was the first time, and Steve was a bit embarrassed. I had to assure him I was not upset at all. Besides, I really liked those labradors. They’re the best pups! I always like it when they come by.

It has been an amazing two years. After creating AvEd Consulting LLC for the tailwheel business, I created a new website with a new blog. Since I had to start populating the flying blog, I focused my efforts there rather than on this blog. (If you want to check it out, you can find it at tailwheelcfi.com.)

Sandy, chasing butterfly shadows.

Starting the new business and combining it with the publishing business has been a fun adventure. BluewaterPress keeps me busy tracking and servicing books for all of the authors. While doing that, I am also trying to write my own books, of which I have two in progress.

I look forward to producing more books and working with more flight students. I still harbor the idea that I can sneak off on an occasional Sunday evening and catch a snook in the Intracoastal waterway.

The post What a Short Time first appeared on joeclarksblog.com.

It is a great office.  And I love what I do there.  When I decided to leave work full time, one of the things I wanted to do was to teach people how to fly taildraggers.  The work is challenging, rewarding, and probably the best adjective to describe it – is fun!

My Champ is a straight 1946 Aeronca 7AC in which the original 65-hp Continental engine was converted to a C-85-12F engine of 85-hp.  It carries all of 13 gallons of 100-LL which is good for about 2 hours and 53 minutes without a reserve.  So basically, fly around for two hours at the blazing speed of 87 mph.  Yep, that’s right.  Miles per hour, not knots.

That’s fine, however, this is not an airplane to travel quickly to faraway destinations.  The singular reason for flying this airplane is to go out and have fun.  It is also good for learning how to fly all over again.  And of course, it teaches pilots how to fly with a stick and rudder and reinforces the idea of holding the stick all the way back throughout landing and then flying the airplane all the way to the tiedown spot.

I have taken some of my friends and former students up in the Champ.  I thought I would be doing a lot of work talking from the back office, but I have been pleasantly surprised!  I would watch in awe as the experienced pilots I allowed into the front cockpit started to listen to the Champ as the airplane gently reminded them how to fly again without any of my input.  I sat in the back smiling as pilot after pilot experimented with flying the antique airplane, and each, in their own way, listened to what the old airplane had to say about maintaining airspeed, keeping altitude, maintaining a centered ball, and reintroducing the concept of adverse yaw.

Sitting in the back office, I have taken great delight in watching my friends play with the airplane.  They didn’t know it, but they were guinea pigs in helping me develop a curriculum and lesson plans for the business of teaching tailwheel technique. I think they had as much fun as I did through the process.

Is it important to learn how to fly an old taildragger? I wrote about it 12 years ago and I am very passionate when I say everyone should fly a taildragger. (See  Why You Should Fly That Old Taildragger.)

If you are curious, hit me up for an introduction to how to fly planes with a tiny wheel in the back.

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The post New Portrait first appeared on joeclarksblog.com.

There has been a lot going on, from starting a new business to producing books for other authors, and chasing down mechanical issues in planes, boats, and cars. Scheduling meetings, participating in webinars and zoom meetings, and learning more about marketing. It has been … busy.

But I would have it no other way.

I remember a day back in 1984 (yeah, what a year, just ask Orwell!) when I was standing on a soccer field in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We had just arrived at the field, and having just left the bachelor officers’ quarters, the newscast was fresh on my mind. It was an article about Social Security going bust. As I was talking with one of the other pilots, I made the comment that I guess I was just going to work until I died.

I am retired, but not. I am still working as much as I ever did in the past, but I have more control over my schedule – and that is the best! I have books to edit, articles to write, my own books to complete, students to teach how to fly, and more. And I could not be happier.

Often I have read about those who “retired” and did just that – they started sitting on their butts and did nothing. In the process of doing nothing, they typically drank too much, ate too much, did not exercise, and in a very short time, they died.

I am not into the dying thing. Don’t get me wrong, I am … curious. I am just not in a hurry to satisfy that curiosity.

Every year, and now with more regularity, I have friends who have made the great trip. It is sad, but in my heart, I know they are no longer suffering from everything this world can throw at them. I also realize they now know all the secrets to the universe. And like I said, I am curious, but I can wait.

Aviator and aviation writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry captured the essence of friendship, flying, and lost friends the best in his book Wind, Sand and Stars. He explains how once a friend is lost, old friends cannot be created out of hand. Comrades who have lived together, worked hard with and for one another, and treasured incredible memories are very special. You can make new friends, but the friendship of an old friend cannot be instantly replicated. Saint-Exupéry said, “If you plant an oak, you will hope in vain to sit soon under its shade.” He went on to say, “For such is life. We grow rich as we plant through the early years, but then come the years when time undoes our work and cuts down our trees. One by one our comrades deprive us of their shade, and within our mourning we always feel now the secret grief of growing old.”

Thinking about it, I have come to realize I do not really fear death – I fear the process. If it is quick, that is one thing. But if it is a long, drawn-out misery, that is another. And like Saint-Exupéry, I have come to realize the real fear is living life without some of the oak trees of my life.

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The post Oak Trees first appeared on joeclarksblog.com.

Those things keeping me away from putting words to paper included teaching during the time of Covid, editing and publishing some incredible books, preparing for retirement, getting a house ready to sell, actually retiring, and creating a new business.

To say I am excited about the possibilities of the future is quite frankly, an understatement.  I am particularly excited about publishing and marketing more books, taking on a three-year rebuilding project for the Cessna 170, and teaching people how to fly…  in airplanes…  in a new (to me antique) airplane…  as soon as I find it.

In the meantime, I am teaching in privately owned aircraft and in rental planes provided by clients. I will fly later this morning and I prepared for the flight shortly after waking. Looking over the pilots’ information manual, I reflected on the difference between being a flight instructor today compared to when I first started. Thinking back to those times right after the FAA freshly-inked my flight instructor certificate, I am amazed at my ignorance of the time.

When I first began teaching people how to fly, I had the feeling that I did not know enough to teach the nuances of flying.  During those early days 44 years ago, I questioned my experience level.  At that time, I only had experience flying taildraggers, Cessnas, Pipers, some Beech aircraft, and a smattering of antique airplanes, with a few experimental homebuilts thrown in for variety.  Looking back from my perspective of today, I was, in fact, more experienced than most flight instructors at my level of experience and age.  But at the time, what did I know?  Not much.

Today, I know more.  A lot more, the most important of which is everything I realize I don’t know.

One thing I know is the difference between instructors, especially the new guys and old guys like me.  The industry is hurting for good flight instructors.  Professional flight instructors.  Unfortunately, I am afraid the shortage of instructors will continue.

Why?

Most of the young instructors are only building time to go onto a bigger, better, flying job.  And there’s nothing wrong with that, for the most part.  However, while they are building their time, flight instructors must give their students the best flight instruction possible.  They should do the job.  Too many young flight instructors become bored after the first 500 or so hours.  For them, teaching becomes a drudgery.  Consequently, they do not provide the best instruction to their clients.

Not providing the best instruction to student pilots is a big mistake made on the part of a few young instructors.  If the student they have signed off for certification becomes involved in an aircraft accident later, those instructors need to realize all kinds of people will be seeking them out to ask questions.

Those flight instructors need to be able to answer the questions as well as possible.  And that starts with the integrity of the initial flight instruction.

The other part of the equation regarding the CFI shortage deals with the old guys, like me.  Many of us who have a lot to contribute are not doing so for a variety of reasons.  In some cases, older CFIs have lost their passion for flying.  Some have had medical issues with aging.  Some have decided they do not want to put their retirement funding at risk in the event of an accident and resulting lawsuits.  They are all good reasons, and I get it.  But it doesn’t help the industry.  There will be a pilot shortage and this upcoming scarcity of aviators will not help the traveling public.

In the meantime, I’m going to go out and enjoy teaching young people how to fly new technologies as well as the old-fashioned way—in taildraggers.

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The post As Arnold said, “I’ll Be Back!” first appeared on joeclarksblog.com.

Every now and then, things happen in the universe that are sometimes difficult to explain. Such is the case with Ed Jackel. During World War II, Jackel served as an infantryman who went to Europe shortly after the D-Day Invasion. He came home, lived an incredible life, and then wrote a book that should have been a best-seller.

We published his story 14 years ago. We developed a bond with the old soldier and enjoyed our telephone conversations over the years after his book came out. For a man in his nineties, his enthusiasm for life was easily transmitted over the telephone lines and very infectious. Every time he would call with a question about publishing or his book, after the questions were answered, we would naturally segue into conversations about life. He was a man who had a multitude of life lessons. They were very well worth the time spent listening.

His story truly merited publishing. When the book came out, I was a little surprised it did not sell as well as I believed it would. Ed’s account of his time in Europe was amazing. He joined the boys who landed in France after the beaches were secured. He, along with the survivors of the invasion, then “took a walk” that ended all the way in Germany. All through his walk, Ed considered himself lucky, hence the name of his book. Now, some nine years after his passing, his book is beginning to sell.

I truly enjoyed producing Ed’s book. It is an important testament to history because it is one man’s firsthand account of what actually happened across the face of Europe in the mid-1940s. There is no embellishment, there is no bravado, no media influence, there is no political impact, it is merely Jackel’s observations as to what really happened on his “walk.”

Ed’s story is an incredible read and I recommend it. You can find his book here.

Ed Jackel is, in a short phrase, an amazing man who lived his life to the fullest. Here is his online obituary; it is a well written eulogy that truly describes how perfectly this man lived his life after his service in the war. It is worth your time reading and you can find it here.

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The post One Man’s Story first appeared on joeclarksblog.com.

Many in the discussion talked about the reaction time from the point of engine failure to actually taking proper action. Those in the debate who had experienced a power problem shortly after liftoff observed that they did hesitate. It was the psychological aspect of disbelief—“I can’t believe this is happening to me!” Next, the participants talked about analysis and then action. This can take two to five seconds, which doesn’t sound long. However, when the nose of the airplane is pointed up in a Vy climb, or worse, in the best angle of climb attitude, airspeed will bleed faster than a bunch of poker players running from an illicit game in a police raid.

Some flight instructors discussed what they do to train their students. There was unanimous agreement about immediate actions, which included flying the plane first. The most crucial aspect of flying the airplane is keeping the airspeed up. As mentioned, when the power fails, the airspeed becomes critical. If the nose is up, the pilot is headed for a place where he or she will lose control of the aircraft. And that becomes the crux of the problem.

As long as the pilot is flying the airplane, the outcome is manageable. When the pilot stops acting as the pilot-in-command, survival becomes questionable. Pilots have to be thinking all of the time, which brings us back to the concept of always being situationally aware. Before every takeoff, each one, you have to know what lies beyond the nose of the airplane, you should have a good idea of the terrain past the runway as well as to the left and to the right. You should also be critically aware of the minimum altitude to try that “impossible turn.”

The impossible turn is a maneuver every pilot will have to decide whether they want to try. In most instances, pilots who try the impossible turn do so on instinct; at the time of the engine failure, they put very little decision-making or thought into the impulsive maneuver. The lag time between engine failure and acting makes this even more deadly. When a typical pilot begins to react and turns around, there is very little airspeed on the plane. Consequently, many who tried to turn back stalled the airplane and spun in.

From a very low altitude, recovery from a spin is very doubtful. The airplane is going to hit, and it’s going to hit hard. Kinetic energy will instantly dissipate when the airplane becomes suddenly stationary. That instantaneous release of energy is deadly. It results in blunt trauma injuries, which are usually fatal.

On the other hand, the pilot who keeps control of the plane through a controlled forced landing will dissipate the energy of impact over time. Another way to describe this is that the airplane slows down gradually. When energy is decreased over distance and time, the crash is survivable.

Survival is a function of pilot action. In the engine failure on takeoff scenario, the critical question is, what does the pilot do and when? Pilots must understand that if the engine “burps” or outright quits, there is no thinking—put the nose down—NOW! In doing this, the pilot will preserve airspeed, and then comes the time for analyzing and making decisions.

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©2020 J. Clark

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The post Engine Failure on Takeoff first appeared on joeclarksblog.com.

Another thing about being young is not realizing the consequences of your actions. The decisions you make as a young person can have an everlasting impact on the rest of your life. Some youngsters have been taught well by their parents, some still have not got the message.

I had a discussion the other day about “Florida drivers.” I took exception to a comment in the dialogue because it was made by a youthful visitor from UN (Up North). It seems this individual did not like Florida drivers because they could not drive well, and they were old. I had to remind the speaker that drivers in Florida were predominantly transplants from areas of the north. Coming across a true, natural-born Floridian today is tantamount to finding that lucky four-leaf clover.

I pointed out that many of those on the roads in Florida were young drivers who tended to take too much risk by driving fast, carelessly, and in some cases, recklessly. Throughout my life, I have heard all the reasons they do it—speed is fun, everyone drives fast, I’m late, 70 mph is too slow. When I was a kid, I echoed some of those excuses myself. Here’s the deal, if you are lucky—really lucky—you might get pulled over and get a ticket.

You will be mad as hell about it, I’m sure. You will think it is unfair. You will be irritated by the officer. You will really regret the fines and points. You will blame everyone except the person who is to really blame. Yourself.

If you are unlucky, you might kill someone.

Oh, I know, you didn’t mean to, it was an accident. But there is that officer again, or another, or several, collecting the facts surrounding what happened. When they finish, they might charge you with speeding and reckless operation of a motor vehicle, resulting in death. At the moment, you don’t realize it, but your life may possibly have just ended.

If the family of your victim sues, and they most likely will, you are going to be responsible for paying that judgment. It could be a judgment totaling millions of dollars. And you are going to have to pay every last penny.

You say you have insurance? That should take of it, right? If your policy limit is $1 million and the judgment is for $3 million, you are going to responsible for $2 million out of pocket. That means the court will decide what it costs you to live on a very basic, no-frills budget and everything you make beyond that, goes to the victims until the debt is paid.

 How do I know about such things as this?

In another lifetime long ago, this exact same scenario played out with a friend of mine. I happened to be standing with him when he got word from the court that he and his parents had made the last payment satisfying the debt.

Be careful out there and be responsible.

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©2020 J. Clark
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The post A Blog for the Young first appeared on joeclarksblog.com.

When I was in second grade, just getting a handle on reading, I remember standing in the hallway of our house in Tampa holding a book, a children’s book, Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales. The unique thing about this book was that my uncle, James Caraway, illustrated it. My mother was doing the laundry again, a seemingly endless task with four young children. Holding the book, I looked at her and asked, “Mom, the people who write these books, do they make money?”

 “No, they don’t,” she chuckled. Although I didn’t know it at the time, she lied to me. It wasn’t until later in my life I would discover the real truth about writing books and money—truth like John Grisham’s net worth was north of $200 million, made in part by his writing. Tom Clancy, Stephen King, Danielle Steel, Dan Brown, Nora Roberts, and others all created tremendous wealth by writing. Between the two of them, James Patterson and J. K. Rowling brought in a cool $1.38 billion over the last ten years. So, yeah, my mom lied to me. Oh well, she did teach me about logic and the importance of doing research, and that has been worth its weight in gold over my lifetime.

The ability to read and research were things I learned at a young age. It helped foster a curious mind, which made me seek out answers for ideas I did not know or understand. This turned out very helpful in both school and aviation. In school, it helped with those courses I enjoyed: music, chemistry, drafting, and history. In aviation, it helped me learn the importance of basic math and how the numbers interacted between how an airplane was built and how it performed.

I am very grateful for the curiosity I developed when young. I am also thankful for my childhood, one lived in a time before “dinklepods” as my friend Mike describes cell phones and other electronic distractions.

Naturally, I still found myself distracted by other things as I was growing up. Primary of which were girls. It’s a teenager’s lot in life, of course, and like all teenagers, many of my friends and I did not know what we were doing when it came to the fairer sex. It would be something we would learn more in-depth later in our lives. It was something my mother mentioned later that would honestly factor into my becoming a writer.

Now I was in the tenth grade. That was when I mentioned to my mother my three main interests were flying, writing, and music. Like most kids in high school, I wondered what I would do later in life for a career.

I said something to Mom about writing, and she said, “You can’t write.” That kind of shocked me.

“Why not?” I asked. What she said next has stayed with me since she said it, and while I could recognize the truth of it, I still thought I could write.

“You have not lived enough. You need more experience,” she answered. What she said made a lot of sense, but like all teenagers, I knew it all. Because of this, I did not know what I did not know. However, what I didn’t know, I would soon learn—but that learning would take a lifetime.

The thing about lifetimes is that no one is ever guaranteed a set amount of time. Some people live to be very old, while others live extraordinary lives that end far too soon.

But it is the living of an allotted time of life that gives one the experience enabling him or her to become a solid writer.

Some people recognize this; Benjamin Franklin was one.

He said, “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” I can imagine that during Mr. Franklin’s time, many of the Founding Fathers were doing “something worth writing” about. This concept led me to aviation. In particular, Naval Aviation (nothing was more exciting).

In my mind, serving the military and flying for our nation was something I believed fit Ben Franklin’s definition of doing something worth writing. I was to find out later the truth of my mother’s words and wisdom.

Lifetimes. It seemed like I lived many. And in the process, I had great fun, went around the world. I loved. And I lost.

All of which became a part of that nebulous phenomenon known as “experience.”

Keep in mind, experience comes in many different formats.

There’s the experience of knowing what you are doing driving a car, sailing a sailboat, flying an aircraft. And there’s the experience of losing best friends.

And the worst, losing your life partner.

That was the kind of experience my mother was talking about way back in 1968.

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©2020 J. Clark
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The post Experience first appeared on joeclarksblog.com.

In this modern-day and age in which we live, some may have seen an e-mail or a posting on Facebook that begins, “You’re 19, critically wounded, and med-evac isn’t coming, but a lone unarmed helicopter suddenly lands before you.” The story that follows goes on to tell about the flying of one Huey helicopter pilot who voluntarily brought in water, supplies, and ammunition. On the way out on each flight, Captain Ed “Too Tall” Freeman carried out severely wounded soldiers. In the process, he and his crew kept flying, kept working, despite the fact they were all wounded themselves.

Freeman’s story is incredible. The infantrymen he flew in support of were running out of ammunition and taking heavy fire. Leadership told the medical helicopter pilots to stand down; flights into and out of the area stopped. When it became so bad it was apparent the men on the ground needed aerial support, Freeman’s commanding officer asked for volunteers. He and his crew were the only ones who stepped forward you. Then began an incredible 14.5 hours of flying throughout the rest of the day.

At perilous risk to his crew and himself, Freeman kept flying in and out of LZ X-Ray to bring in supplies and extract wounded soldiers. He flew 14 missions that day and saved an estimated 30 men—some of whom would not have survived without Captain Freeman’s selfless devotion to duty.

His commander recommended him for the Medal of Honor, but for whatever reason, the recommendation came late, beyond the two years called for by regulations. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross instead. Many soldiers and officers who witnessed Freeman’s incredible dedication and courage that day began a campaign to see him awarded the MOH. In 1995, authorities removed the two-year deadline, paving the way for the approval for Freeman to receive the Medal of Honor.

On July 16, 2001, during ceremonies in the East Room of the White House, President George W. Bush presented Major Ed Freeman the Medal of Honor.

Listen to Major Ed Freeman’s story recorded on video below.

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©2019 J. Clark
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The post “A Soldier’s Trust” first appeared on joeclarksblog.com.