Crock’s Thoughts

I’ve worked in aviation since I was 16, and now that I’m in my mid-50s… well, let’s just say the technology has changed almost as much as the hairstyles at the airport.

When I first started flying, planning a flight looked like a cross between geometry class and a treasure map. I had a big paper chart spread across the table, a plotter, a pencil, and the legendary E6B—better known as a whiz wheel.

For the younger crowd, the whiz wheel was basically aviation’s version of a stone tablet calculator. It spun, it clicked, and somehow it told you fuel burn, groundspeed, and exactly how bad you were at math.

Back then, if you got lost, you couldn’t just zoom in with two fingers and let GPS save your ass. Nope! You unfolded a chart the size of a bed sheet and tried not to accidentally reroute yourself into the next county.

Infact, we were always told, “Just look for the town’s water tower and read the name on it.” Of course, the very first time I got lost, I somehow managed to find the only town in America without a name on its water tower! 🙄

Plus, back then, a flight bag was… well… an actual bag. You know, with all the essentials… charts, approach plates, checklists, flashlights, pens that never worked, and at least one mystery cough drop fossilized in the bottom.

Now we call it an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB). Which, to the rest of the world, is just an iPad. But in aviation, we can’t simply say, “Grab the iPad.” Nooo… that sounds far too normal. We have to make it sound all fancy like we’re launching the space shuttle… or something.

Heck, the internet wasn’t even a thing when I started in aviation. I mean, there was no Wi-Fi in the office or cockpit, no weather apps, and definitely no, “let me just Google that.” Weather briefings came from actual people, and weather charts came from printers that sounded like a machine gun having a nervous breakdown.

I mean, I remember back when I worked in Flight Dispatch, I called an airport in South Texas to get their fax number. The old gentleman answered in a slow Southern drawl and said, “Son, we don’t even have that thing called an internet, let alone a fax machine.” 😂

Now everything is digital. The GPS draws the route, the EFB updates the charts automatically, and half the cockpit looks like a set straight out of Star Wars. At this point, even the spaceships in those movies are starting to look a little outdated compared to today’s cockpits.

Of course, with all the fancy gadgets now, one thing has definitely changed in aviation: when something doesn’t work, instead of a mechanic showing up with a wrench, now they tell you to reboot it. Somewhere along the way, “grab the toolbox” turned into “have you tried turning it off and back on again?”

Soo… yeah, things have change a bit. Lol!