I can testify that pilots sometimes do avoid even the smallest rain showers.

I started learning to fly on a two-seat experimental aircraft, a ZenAir STOL 701 (www.zenithair.com). My instructor had built the plane himself from a kit. Since we were deep in the heart of Africa, spare parts were very hard to come by, so he took care of his plane like a museum curator. Many were the days we would spend hours making small repairs to the wings or readjusting cable tensions, before we would strap ourselves in and go flying.

The wooden propeller was a particularly sensitive piece of equipment that could not have been repaired locally. The 80hp engine cranked at 5500 revolutions per minute, so the propeller blades were spinning very fast. Bill had good reason to worry that impact with rain drops at cruise speed would leave tiny pockmarks on his blades, which would alter their aerodynamic properties in the short term and eventually cause them to break.

We never flew in steady rain - the plane had no doors, so it wouldn't have been a good idea even if the prop wasn't an issue, and we had no instruments useful for navigating through poor visibility. However, sometimes we had to fly on days when light showers were passing between us and our destination. When that happened, we would circle until we could see we were approaching the shower at its thinnest point. Then we would cruise right to the edge of the rain, and pull the power down to idle just before we hit the drops. We would glide through the shower - usually just 5 or 10 seconds - and then throttle back up as soon as we were clear.

Of course, you won't find any airline pilots pulling this maneuver in their incredibly robust equipment. But don't be surprised, if you ever find yourself in a tiny homemade aeroplane headed toward a band of rain, if the pilot is a little hesitant about splashing through...

I have not read the article, and I will not read it. I find it incredibly offensive that Salon would feature an article about the future first lady's behind. No matter how erudite or insightful the article may be about its subject, this is not an appropriate topic for Salon.

Call me an old grump (though I'm neither fairly young and generally cheerful), call me a prude (hah!) - I just think that entertaining this topic when writing about an accomplished professional woman is demeaning and wrong.

This column repeats Patrick's frequent complaint that journalists writing about aviation tend to know little or nothing about aviation. Sad, true, but correctable. Patrick, instead of just lamenting AP's sucky coverage, why not plead that the media make a habit of sending their aviation reporters to ground school (if not anteing up for a full private pilot's license)? With an investment of a few hundred dollars, the AP could have an aviation beat reporter who knew what s/he was talking about.

Perhaps if you beat the drum for reporters to take the easy step of learning their subject matter, instead of just bewailing the fact that they don't, some media outlets will catch on.

I still remember the time T3 caused me to miss a flight - a $99 PanAm hop to Cleveland in 1990.

I'd left plenty of time to get to the airport, but for some reason the "Train to the Plane" did not run in Manhattan for about 45 minutes. Once it finally came, it made all local stops through Brooklyn, so I was already desperately late when I got to the terminal.

But there was still time to get on the plane! Except that the elevators weren't working and there were no useful signs. I ran around like a rat in a maze until I finally made it to my gate - and they closed the door in my face. I watched the plane push back, then had twelve hours to kill until the next flight.

Oy!

Burris will probably not resign - his ego and delusions of grandeur are second only to the man who appointed him. However, if the heat gets just too much, he will go out with his head held high. After all, his real goal was to add a final line to his memorial stone:

United States Senator*

Brava to Wanda Sykes!

Normally the only time Rush hears from black women is when he flies on a private jet to the Caribbean with a carry-on filled with Viagra.

It's all here at the Smoking Gun:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0706062rush1.html

The mind boggles about the desperation that a poor woman in the DR must feel if she must spend time with Rush in order to support her family.

Perhaps the reason the right is so outraged about Wanda Sykes is that she's not the hired help and they can't make her shut up. Keep shouting out the truth, Wanda!