About Me

I spent thirty years as an Air Force Pilot before beginning a second career as an Aviation Science Professor. My interests include writing, all things aviation, outdoor activities, and sports. 

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 The new Lou Rizzo mystery is now available on Amazon here . For fans of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and the noir genre, here is a good old-fashioned, hard-boiled detective yarn. It’s the second installment in the Lou Rizzo detective series. Lou Rizzo is a streetwise private eye who makes a living off philandering spouses. It wasn’t his first career choice but losing an eye while flying a B-25 raid in World War II put an end to his childhood dream of becoming a commercial aviator. It also drove him to depression and the bottle. He’s begun to make peace with his fate, allowing him to take his first small steps on the long journey out of alcoholism. One day a seductive redhead, with danger written all over her, slinks into his office and turns his world upside down. Her request…find the man who murdered her brother. He doesn’t take homicide cases; that’s police business and career suicide for a private dick. He knows better, but the lady is very persuasive…very. Against hi...
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In CHASING DRAGONS ( http://tiny.cc/oy7ply ), Edwina "Eddie" Watt learned to fly in her uncle's Curtiss Jenny while growing up in West Texas. They say any landing you can walk away from is a good one. This famous photo titled "Jenny in a Tree" puts that theory to a severe test! Before and after pictures! The Curtiss JN-4D is almost synonymous with American aviation in the 1920s. The Jenny, as it was affectionately called, appeared in 1917. Heretofore having only produced pusher aircraft, Glenn Curtiss ... hired an experienced European designer to lead the new project named B. Douglas Thomas, who had worked for Avro and Sopwith in England. The Jenny performed admirably as a trainer for the U.S. Air Service during World War I, but its more significant role in aviation history was as a barnstorming and mail-carrying airplane in the 1920s. Large numbers of relatively inexpensive war surplus Jennys were available in the United States after 1918. Its aff...
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THE LOCKHEED LODESTAR This is a Lockheed Lodestar similar to the one flown by Duke Kellogg and his copilot Edwina "Eddie" Watt while Chasing Dragons . The  Lockheed 18  Lodestar was the last twin-engine transport designed by Lockheed. The prototype, a Lockheed 14 Super Electra lengthened by five feet, flew on the 21st of September, 1939. Designed for the commercial market, Lockheed found domestic sales slow due to previous commitments by airlines to buy the DC-3. A total of 96 were ordered by foreign airlines in Canada, Africa, Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, the UK and Venezuela. The first military orders for the Lodestar came from the US Navy. In 1940, the Navy ordered three variants, an executive transport carrying seven, a personnel transport carrying 14, and a paratroop transport carrying 18. In 1941, the US Army Air Corps had 13 Lodestars built and designated them the C-57 . In addition, after the attack on Pearl Harbor,...
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