Meet Jetwhine

I’d like to thank Ivan and Alexey for suggesting this linkup between our aviation blog from the United States – Jetwhine.com - and this one here in Russia. I find the idea of interacting with many of you in the future to be a terribly exciting idea. I do hope you’ll find it as valuable on this side of the world as we will when we post some stories from these two young aviators in the US.

We thought it might be important before we even talk about the stories for me to give you just a bit about my experience to help establish a little credibility. Otherwise, why listen to me eh?

As you can see from the photo of me in the captain’s chair of the A380, I’m a pilot and have been for 40 years. I still teach people to fly and have spent time flying for both the airlines and as a corporate pilot in private aviation. Thirteen years of my life was also spent as an air traffic controller here in the US. But I’ve also been an aviation writer most of adult life trying to tell the stories I’ve seen along the way. I have four books and hundreds of magazine articles behind me. So enough about me.

I’m here to begin sharing some of the aviation world in the West with you here in Russia. We’re hoping to talk more about private aviation than the airlines because I believe you’ll find it more interesting. But I might be wrong, so do send along your questions about aviation outside of Russia and I’ll do my best to answer them here. It might be about learning to fly, or how business/private aviation is evolving here in the states so you can reflect on what’s happening in your region. And perhaps you just have a few interesting pictures or video links you’d like to share. I’ll try to do the same with you.

So as we wrap up this first post, let me leave you with this link, actual video of an Air France A380 taxiing at John F. Kennedy International Airport the other night. Watch what happens to a 70,000 lbs. regional jet when the left wing of the jumbo strikes the smaller aircraft. This could well have been an incredible disaster. This time everyone was lucky.

Thanks for reading.

Rob Mark