Old Pilot Retires . . .

This time around the changes have been inspired by my recent retirement from active flying and a need to free up time for other projects:

1 — Eddie?

2 — The new Code 7700

3 — Et tu, Gulfstreams?

4 — Contacting me

5 — Future projects

6 — Thanks!

Retiring? Again?

When you end a career, you are said to have retired from the career. But how do you define career? Given the classical understanding, I am retiring for the second time. The first was after twenty years in the Air Force. Now it is after an additional twenty-two years as a civilian business jet pilot. So, yes, I guess I am retired. Again.

I don't really think of those careers as my life and I guess that is why I don't really think of myself as retired. My life is primarily devoted to my family. But it is also devoted to aviation and the desire to pass along what I have learned. So, in that sense, my purpose goes on. Eddie's purpose, however, is being retired.

Eddie's creation

If you know about Eddie Haskel from the many books and articles on the previous website, you know that Eddie is a pseudonym of mine. If you haven't heard that and are interested, I write about that here: Rule #6: Not Every Battle is Worth Fighting.

I thought I needed the pseudonym when I started the last job, 13 years ago. As it turns out, it really wasn't necessary. Now, it really isn't needed. So, I am . . .

Back to James

So, please call me James. It is my name, after all.

The home page will continue to feature the most recent posting as well as a few others. You can find just about everything through the menus on top.

Homeplate

The "Homeplate" menu item gets you back to the "front page" from any page on the website. It is just like "Home" on any other website, but I couldn't resist the rhyme with the other menu items.

Aviate

The "Aviate" menu item gets you the things needed to fly:

• Aircraft
• Airports
• Airspace
• Altimetry
• Engineering & math
• Flight discipline
• Flight operations
• Ground operations
• Instrument procedures
• International operations
• Radar
• Technology
• Weather

Navigate

The "Navigate" menu item are things needed to find where you are and where you are going:

• Coordinates, latitude & longitude
• CR-3 / CPU-26
• Course
• ETPs
• GPS / GNSS
• Inertial navigation
• Plotting
• Required Navigation Performance (RNP)

Communicate

The "Communicate" menu item is how you communicate to others, how they communicate to you, and how they track you:

• Connectivity
• Data link
• Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT)
• HF
• Lost Communications
• Required Communications Performance (RCP)
• Required Surveillance Performance (RSP)
• SATVOICE vs. SATCOM
• SELCAL
• TCAS
• Transponder
• Voice position reports

Relate

The "Relate" menu item is all about human factors:

• Crew Resource Management (CRM)
• Decision making
• Diversions (movies and books)
• Leadership
• Physiology
• Psychology
• Rules
• Situational Awareness

Pontificate

The "Pontificate" menu item is where you will find things that are more opinion based:

• About (all about me and the website)
• Accident rates
• Books (mine)
• Case studies
• Magazine articles
• More stories
• Newsletters
• Speeches
• Videos

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So what's missing? Well, for starters, there is no longer a "contact" item. More about that below, Contacting me. Also I still need to work on a better search function.

So what about all the information about Gulfstreams? Fear not, if you want to learn more about the Gulfstream G450, G500, G550, G600, and G650, we have you covered. Our sister site, Code 450 has all of that and more.

One of my favorite lessons in delegation comes from the movie "Catch 22" where Major Major comes up with the perfect way to do as little as possible while still getting the job done through delegation:

• Major: "Sergeant, from now on I don't want anyone to come in and see me while I am in my office, is that clear?"
• Sergeant: "Yes, sir. What do I say to people who want to come in an see you while you are in your office?"
• Major: "Tell them I'm in, and ask them to wait."
• Sergeant: "For how long?"
• Major: "Until I've left."
• Sergeant: "And then what do I do with them?"
• Major: "I don't care."
• Sergeant: "May I send people in after you've left?"
• Major: "Yes."
• Sergeant: "You won't be here then, will you?"
• Major: "No."
• Sergeant: "I see, sir."

Of course that kind of delegation is only possible where you have a sergeant who knows better how to do the job than you and in an organization where things are more or less operating autonomously. So that "ideal" is out of reach here. But I can no longer answer five to ten emails a day on various topics so I've removed the "contact me" button on these pages. But there are two other ways to reach me if you like:

Patreon

You can contact me through Patreon.

Just click on the Patreon symbol

Linked In

You can also reach me through https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-albright-code7700.

Of those I've already done, I particularly like The Brothers Bellum. I am planning a few more like it, placing a fictionalized family into a time in military history that tells a compelling story while teaching the history.

The next project is a massive undertaking called, "Flying the Digital Jets." It covers innovations of the last twenty years: fly-by-wire, head-up-displays, enhanced vision systems, FADEC, and other technology.

Fortunately, Aviation Week / Business & Commercial Aviation magazine have come to my rescue. They pay me to go out and fly new aircraft and write about it. There is a lot of work involved and you could argue that the pay doesn't justify the time involved. Maybe. But it does teach me a lot about areas of aviation I didn't know enough about. So it is a good deal.

There were several video channels on the old site, such as "The Stuck Mike Show," "Due Regard," and a host of others. My plan is to continue those on a YouTube channel, details to follow.

Zen is a school of Buddhism which teaches that enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition. It began in China but is now associated more with the Japanese. The Japanese are said to teach that contemplating one's essential nature it the way to achieve pure enlightenment. So this is me, contemplating.

I get a lot of thanks for the service Code 7700 provides to the aviation community and I always receive these with gratitude. But the truth is that the effort required to produce this website, the magazine articles, the videos, and the books have all combined to make me a better aviator. So it is I that owe all of you thanks for the inspiration, the comments, the corrections, and the support. For all of that, I say thank you to you all. I hope this version of the website continues to serve you well.