About the Site:

Exercise your license to learn with insights, lessons, and thoughts on the world of flight.

Patrick sitting in the CRJ.

AviationChatter.com is an online flight training resource with reflections from the flight training world, aviation news, and pilot insights and lessons learned from years of experience.

In addition to the blog on the front page, we have a live at-a-glance weather page complete with radar, satellite, and a plethora of other weather charts. Free online training aids are also featured.

I’m always eager for feedback. Leave a comment and discuss my postings or just send me an email.

About Me:

Follow me on Twitter

My name is Patrick Flannigan. When I was a little kid, I always wanted to be a pilot. I grew up just under the ILS approach to 21R in Detroit, MI. That’s right, I grew up watching incredible airliners majestically float by overhead. Some call it brain damage from all the noise-pollution and jet fumes, but I always wanted to be in the cockpit of one of those jets.

Fast forward a few years. After moving to beautiful Tennessee, I convinced my wonderful parents to let me take an introductory flight lesson at the insanely young age of thirteen! I was hooked. For the next few years, I would venture out to the airport once a month to take a new flight lesson.

I stopped flying for a time towards the end of high school, but I picked it up again in college and completed my private pilot’s license. Not knowing what else to do, I continued to acquire new ratings and proceeded up the ranks of qualified airmen until I got lucky. Out of the blue, I was literally handed a job right out of college. I was a professional pilot. I was actually paid to fly a neat turboprop airplane (if your curious, it was a Merlin).

This job gave me lots of other opportunities. In addition to flying the Merlin, I also met a number great pilots and managed to find my way into the right seat on a number of other great airplanes. I got to fly freight in Twin Cessnas, drive passengers around in a King Air, and dodge weather in a Baron. During this time, I also became a flight instructor.

Now, I work as a first officer for a regional airline flying the Canadair CRJ-200. I’m living my boyhood dream, and loving every minute of it.