Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&amp;P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.

Editor-in-Chief

Matt Thurber

We’re at almost 40,000 feet, and I’m pulling back on the beefy stick of a two-seat Douglas TA-4J Skyhawk single-engine jet trainer, about to make the airplane stall. “Keep pulling,” says Phillip “OP” Oppenheimer, APS instructor and Top Aces chief pilot, over the intercom as the airspeed bleeds off and the outside world tilts up further–“pull, pull, pull,” just like a pilot might mistakenly try to stay level as airspeed decays during a high-altitude upset. Finally, as the angle-of-attack needle crawls to the maximum AOA (at that altitude) of about 12 to 14 units and the jet’s nose points well above the horizon, the airframe shudders and it’s time for the recovery procedure: push to reduce AOA, roll wings level, add thrust and…wait, wait, wait.


The flight in the TA-4J was the second sortie during a busy day of jet upset prevention and recovery training (UPRT) at Aviation Performance Solutions (APS) headquarters at Arizona’s Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in mid-December. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;


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