Just a quick goodbye to 2023

It seems crazy to me that 2023 is already almost over! It’s been a year of change and, I guess, renewal, although I feel like I’ve been dragged kicking and screaming all the way.

Fear of Landing continues to be a joy: I learn so much from writing for you and I love the community and the commentary that has built up around it. (If you have emailed me, I love that too, it’s just that I’m really bad about making time to respond!)

With social media imploding and my personal concerns about data usage and propoganda dissemination, I am especially grateful to those of you who follow the RSS feed or sign up to the mailing list to get the posts, rather than relying on Facebook or Twitter for notifications. Only a small percentage of people actually receive my posts unless I pay. On Facebook, for example, I’m asked to pay a minimum of $40 just so that the people who have signed up for page updates see my post. Those are the people who have opted in!

That said, if there’s some other form of notification that would work better for you than the email list, please tell me and I’ll see if I can integrate it into my workflow.

The single biggest thing is that I released Pilot Error after five years of not having an aviation book out. It was so much fun to write and pull together! I hoped to get a second book out this year but as usual, the research and writing always takes a bit more time than I plan for. It’ll be finished soon, though!

Most exciting, though, was attending the Swiss Air Force demonstrations at Axalp 2023, which was flat-out amazing. If you aren’t already bored to tears hearing about my trip, you can read another essay about the Brienzer Rothorn Bahn, a charming steam train trip that I took after the third day of the demonstration was cancelled.

I’m writing this on my phone so please forgive any typos or formatting weirdness. I’ll be having a quiet weekend and then hopefully a quiet flight back home, after the havoc that Storm Pia has caused at Schiphol before Christmas.

Wishing you all the best and I’ll see you in 2024!