Pilot Weather Wisdom

The first page of both my weather books mentions Aristotle’s discourse (Meteorologica) written in 340 B.C. I am recently back from a Greek Island and Turkish cruise with a few days spent in Athens, Greece. Everyone wants to head the Acropolis (I did that too), but I learned about Aristotle’s Lyceum. (I had to look […]

17th-century English philosopher Sir Francis Bacon wrote, “Every wind has its weather.” The contiguous US and the southern portion of Canada sit in latitudes where the winds prevail from the west (at the surface and aloft). But this vast geographic area is also conducive to the birth of low pressure systems.   At the onset of […]

On a recent LAX layover, my F/O stood me up so I walked to Manhattan Beach where there is a pier with a small aquarium at the end. On its roof is a weather vane which triggered a thought…are weather vanes oriented to true or magnetic north? Did the builder wait until sunrise or sunset […]

Captain D was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal. Bad Atmosphere As a captain for Air Canada, pilot Captain Doug Morris has gotten plenty of practice this summer (politely) delivering bad news to passengers. Very often the blame is assigned to the weather. “Mother Nature can throw a lot of curveballs. She can challenge us,” said […]

They begin to “paint” on the weather radar and rear their ugly, ominous heads. Thunderstorms are on the horizon while flying in a remote area — perhaps over the Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean or maybe cruising the thunderstorm-infested Brazil’s Amazon jungle. VHF radios are out of range, and HF (High Frequency) is nothing but […]

A non-aviator asked me what’s a sucker hole. Pilots learn not to fly through a hole (sucker hole) or near a thunderstorm, because it may fill in and get nasty. It’s a meteorological temptation. Having said that, I will take a “hole” over a wall of nasty clouds anytime.  Holes can get a pilot out of […]

I recently did a podcast with a large aviation firm, Australian Aviation. Plus they wrote a great article boosting my new book. I think both went well.

If you want to listen to a crusty 60 year old captain for over seven hours then click on the following pic. It took four days in the studio downtown Toronto to get it right. Justin Bieber, Nelly Furtado and Chris Hadfield also recorded there.

Book #4 has arrived. Captain Doug Morris has been writing for his airline’s in-flight magazine for 24 years and answered a gamut of questions. This sequel to his bestselling book, From the Flight Deck: Plane Talk andSky Science, explains everything you wanted to know about airline travel, such as: Do airliners have keys? What do […]

July 7th saw me enter the realm of the 6th decade. When am I going to retire? In about two years. I have a book to promote this coming spring (2022). My tennis partner filmed me, but the first take was photo bombed by a maintenance guy that felt it necessary to sweep the court. […]

            While editing my draft for Pilot Weather Wisdom and paralleling (no, not plagiarizing) what famous Robert Buck states in his iconic book, Weather Flying, I should talk about pilot weather psychology             Years ago, when looking toward the sky, I read an article in an aviation magazine about an airline pilot that developed a […]

This future book hit its first wave of turbulence. FYI, Book #4 has been put on hold until next spring. “This is Your Captain Speaking: Stories from the Cockpit has entered a long holding pattern due to COVID. I wrote about 260 pages for book #5, thinking it could do with some tweaking but overall […]

There is a new virtual aviation book store in Toronto. These two young guys are keen for business. Yes, they are selling my book and I recently had a debut interview with Gabe, Skywing’s partner.

Finally, the books arrived. I think the “nip and tuck” worked out well. However, I only printed 100 copies and I am nearly out. Don’t fret, another 200 are coming in 2 to 3 weeks. I think, I hope, I believe.

CAW #3 will be available at the end of February. I hope. Due to miscommunication, printers breaking down and planets not lining up things were delayed about a month and a half. The new “nip and tuck” version will be full colour, have an extra chapter on altimetry, errors and typos fixed with a new […]