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Comment by ddoran | Hacker News Reader

Patrick Smith, the author and eponymous "pilot" in the title, has been writing interesting articles about flying and a pilot's life for years. He is as much a traveler as he is a pilot and loves what he does. If you have any interest in flying or travel but have somehow not come across Patrick Smith before, check out his archive [1] and his book [2] Pilot Confidential, an update of his earlier book, Ask The Pilot, named for his now-defunct column at Salon.com iirc.

[1] http://www.askthepilot.com/archives/ [2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16235130-cockpit-confide...

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I also find the Aviation StackExchange site [1] interesting. The weekly newsletter [2] contains just enough interesting stuff for a mildly interested occasional flier like myself.

[1] https://aviation.stackexchange.com/

[2] https://stackexchange.com/newsletters/newsletter?site=aviati...

Even better: become a pilot!

https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/learn-to-fly/how-do...

I can't recommend Patrick Smith's writing highly enough. I used to be somewhat uncomfortable when flying: the lack of control was extremely unsettling. But after reading Ask the Pilot for a while, I came to understand and respect the role of the pilot.

I would also strongly recommend his books, _Ask The Pilot_ and _Cockpit Confidential_ for anybody who travels (and especially for nervous fliers). Now I fly quite regularly, and love it.

Same experience here. The day after finishing Cockpit Confidential I experienced my first go-around landing in bad weather. I wasn't nervous because I had some idea why it occurred and what was happening in the cockpit.

And here's the exact source of the businessinsider.com article - http://www.askthepilot.com/questionanswers/turbulence/

is it correct to use eponymous like this? I thought it implied that you were actually using the name: "Patrick Smith explains turbulence"

obviously language is dynamic, but I've not seen this use before, and it seems like it's the opposite of the meaning of the word.

Strictly speaking it isn't eponymy, since the column isn't named for Smith himself. But, while a stretch, it's an acceptable one, and one I've seen used not too infrequently elsewhere. As you say, language is dynamic, and we see here an example of that dynamism in action.

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