What's with the Name?

No flying this weekend... :-( I spent too much money flying to Hailey and back. Hopefully next weekend I'll be able to get out for a short flight to the San Juans, since I've been neglecting some of my friends who want to go up for a ride to Friday Harbor.

So instead, I thought I'd take a post and explain what the name of this blog is, for those reading who are not familiar with air traffic control. "Climb and maintain" is an instruction issued to an aircraft by air traffic control to climb to and stay at a specific altitude. Typically, it would be something like "Cessna 123, climb and maintain 8,000", which in the IFR environment means commence a climb from your present altitude to 8,000 feet. It's assumed that you'll do it at your best climb rate, which should be at least 500 feet per minute. If you're unable to maintain 500 feet per minute, you should advise the controller.

So now, hopefully the origin of the name of this blog should be a bit more clear!