Candidly, I had mixed feelings when the news broke about a potential return of Kawhi Leonard to the Raptors. It made me think back to his first tenure with the team; here are my thoughts from 2019. Rereading them, I'm now inclined to believe 'Kawhi II' could be an interesting sequel. | 🏀 🦖

‘Keep Them Flying’ is a good old-fashioned cards and letters campaign being organised to keep the Snowbirds flying through the extended pause between old (CT-114) and new (CT-157) team aircraft. If you have seen … (📸 Russ via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 2.0.) | 🛩️ ⚔️ 🥇 | 🧵 1/2 | 🔗 keepthemflying.ca

Oh. So what you're saying is that an AI token is basically the equivalent of the old IBM blue job card? In that case, why didn't you just say that in the first place? | 👴🏻

Our client @blufly.media's July issue just hit the streets. This project certainly has more than its fair share of fun, what with the kind of stories they cover.

Live Event Announcement💥 Coming up on July 15, 2026 at 13:00 UTC, our friend Jon Davison will be taking *your* questions on taking your aviation photography to the next level. It's a free event, but registration in advance is mandatory. Details and sign-up information with the link below. | 🛩️ 📅 🥇

Any fans of the RCAF Snowbirds here? ❄️ 🐦 The editorial this month is all about them: past, present, and future. And, yes, they do have one. 😎

Gosh, we had no idea this project was even in the works. Our hats 🎩 are off to Renault for getting behind this amazing effort, intended to enable the aircraft—one of the most beautiful ever 😍 in our humble opinion—to get back in the air, where it belongs. More details and videos with link. | 🛩️ 📹 📰 🥇

One of the projects that is occupying a lot of our time and attention is @blufly.media. In fact, our Founder and President @terencecgannon.com has been seconded to them as Managing Editor until such time as they're off and running. Have something similar in mind? Let's talk. 🗣️

Partly in response to @toni.bsky.team's recent article 'About the Atmosphere'—and it's likely to ruffle feathers—if we're concerned about the long-term well-being of @bsky.app, outside of the @atproto.com developer community, we need to stop talking about the AT Protocol. (📸 Declan M. Martin) | 🦋

I wrote this in 2018 and published it back then on @medium.com. As part of a new effort to consolidate my collected work on in-house servers, I'm republishing it today. It's my recollection of the arrival of the IBM PC at the ComputerLand at Broadway and Arbutus, in Vancouver, BC, in 1981. | ✍🏻 🎙️

Hey @toni.bsky.team: If you have a spare moment between keynotes at @atmosphereconf.org, this is the one feature, above all others, we would like to see in the @bsky.app core offering. (📸 Steven Pavlov, via @wikimediafoundation.org Commons under the Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.) | 🦋

A while back we had a flurry of flying car stories, and then not much since. So here's one for all those who dream of seeing the traffic jam up ahead, deploying the gyrocopter gear, and leaping over it, James Bond-style. All kidding aside, we're delighted to see PAL-V's steady progress. | 🛩️ 🚁 📰 🥇

Hey @pfrazee.com , is there something weird going on? We've just seen recent posts on a number of accounts we manage disappear. If that's something others are experiencing, are they gone forever or just temporarily?

So, @bluefacts.app, we want to make sure we're interepreting this correctly: for instance, in the case of « Daily Likes on Bluesky » are you saying for every 100 likes seven days ago, there would have been 83.8 likes today? That is, down by 16.2%? Or is there something we're missing? Thanks. | 🦋

Hey, @jay.bsky.team and @bsky.app. Look at some of the great stuff being posted to your platform. Betcha can't guess exactly what it is at which you're looking. 🤔

For the @atproto.com community: pretty sure this article from @marmelab.bsky.social hasn't made it here, yet, so here it is …

If the opportunity arises, we think finding a current photo of the locale from the vintage photo really helps bring the latter to life. (📸 Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales | Google Street View) | 🛩️ | 🧵 2/3

With Premier @susanholtnb.bsky.social having demonstrated leadership in this regard (as per @globalnews.ca, linked), isn't it high time for you, Prime Minister @mark-carney.bsky.social, to make a similar commitment? Followed shortly thereafter by your cabinet and caucus, following your example. | 🍁

We just finished up helping our client @blufly.media get their latest issue out on time and on budget. ✅

Hey @cmdr-hadfield.bsky.social: have you considered using your domain name as your @bsky.app handle? All the cool kids, like @milesobrien.com and @airbus.com, are doing it and it does add an additional layer of authenticity to your account. Details, direct from the horse’s 🐴 mouth, linked. | 🦋

We're in awe 😲 of @redbull.com's ability to get their name 'out there' in some very cool places: to wit, the Red Bull on *both* the aircraft and the low-flying, wind-powered hot rod below, at the recent SailGP event in Perth, Australia. (📸 Jason Ludlow | SailGP) | 🛩️ 🥇 | 🔗 sailgp.com/news/26/sail...

We were looking for a fitting way to mark Martin Luther King Day, and as @jonostrower.com of @theaircurrent.com says "there's always an aviation angle": to wit, this excellent 2019 article by Tammera L. Holmes. We also love the great collection of photos she found and included in the article. | 🛩️ 👩🏻‍✈️

It's a very low priority for me, given that the functionality can be delivered by using a text editor. In my case, I use @textastic.bsky.social. Available on all platforms and likely more functional than any 'built-in' editor. There are *many* other things I would like to see addressed before this.

We are unapologetically enthusiastic about @dawnaerospace.bsky.social: they're quietly getting things in the suborbital domain with their Aurora aircraft. Their latest short video is a great way to get up to speed on their story so far. | 🛩️ 📡 🛰️ 💺 📹 🥇 | 🔗 www.dawnaerospace.com/latest-news/...

Finally, an 'adieu' to 2025 to which we can really relate. 🥂

Need another reason not to touch Substack with a ten-foot pole? Here's one: a recent subscription to one of their mailing lists resulted in *three* additional subscriptions, two of which required specific 'unsubscribe' action and a third requiring confirmation. Not cool. Not cool at all. 🙄

« Leveraging learnings from Wisk’s previous five generations of aircraft and more than 1,750 test flights, Gen 6 is the first-ever candidate for an FAA-certified commercial autonomous passenger aircraft in the U.S., with launch markets including Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami … » | 🛩️ ⚡️ 🚁 📰 🥇

We're thankful 🙏🏻 to have played some small part in bringing the December, 2025 issue of @blufly.media and appreciate the opportunity. Here's to even bigger and better things in 2026.

Okay, this ticks ✅ a lot of boxes. (📸 LEGO) | 🛩️ 🔍 🥇

Folks in the San Francisco Bay area: did you manage to spot this overhead today? Must have been quite the sight. 😲

It's a new month 💥 and September, for Managing Editor @terencecgannon.com, will forever mean one thing: the Reno Air Races. 🏁 He also announces some exciting new Custom Feeds, toys with the idea of a BluFly mailing list, and explains the new, slimmed-down profile name. (📸 Don Ramey Logan) | 🛩️ 🥇

Sick of coding? Have an artistic flair? Like aviation? Live near Bemidji, Minnesota? If so, your ship has just come in. 🛳️

I usually post this video on Christmas Eve, but with the sad news of naval aviator, test pilot, and astronaut Jim Lovell having gone west, it's entirely appropriate to post it today. This world very much needs more Jim Lovell, not less. | 🌎 🚀 🌖

Question for @bsky.app, @jay.bsky.team, @pfrazee.com, or anybody else that might know: does the presence and/or quality of the ALT text in Bluesky posts have any impact on rankings in the Discover feed? | 🦋 (actual footage of us working our fingers to the bone trying to write helpful ALT texts ⬇️)

The tragic news of Felix Baumgartner having gone west far too soon left us feeling very sad 😢 here in the home office. We choose to memorialise him this way: with the best TV commercial ever made, which he both narrates and in which he's featured. His words therein are all that need be said. | 🛩️ 📹

Anybody know why Dan Abramov's @bsky.app account is coming up as 'deactivated'?

We've said previously we like projects where quiet, steady progress is reported in the past tense. The 'Seaglider' from REGENT fits nicely into this category as they describe their latest developments getting the 'Viceroy' up on its foils. Next stop, flight in ground effect, presumably? | 🛩️ 🦆 ⚡️ 📹 🥇

You know, if you’re still on 🐦 there’s no nice way of putting it: regardless of your justification, you’re part of the problem. | 😒

Not a month goes by where there isn't at least one really interesting episode of the 'Behind The Wings®' podcast worthy of your time and attention: this time it's with Lt. Col. Josh Cadice (ret.) talking about the perennially popular U-2 'Dragon Lady'. | 🛩️ 🎙️ ⚔️ 🥇 | 🔗 wingsmuseum.org/resources/po...

Good thing it's still the 1st of June somewhere 🌎 otherwise this would be late. 😉 In any event, it's a new month 💥 and there are lots of great things in store kicked off with Managing Editor @terencecgannon.com's recollection of two articles which kind of changed his life. (📸 Cheryl Goodwin) | 🛩️ 🦆 🥇

It's National Paper Airplane Day and rather than raiding the office stationery cupboard for a modest, folded flying machine, why not consider this much more ambitious undertaking meticulously documented on Instructables? | 🛩️ 🪽 📡 🥇 | 🧵 1/2 | 🔗 www.instructables.com/How-to-Make-...

This is intriguing: launch thousands of autonomous, long-duration weather balloons. Then, aggregate the data they collect and process it with the aid of AI in order to provide improved atmospheric intelligence. Basically, that's WindBorne Systems. | 🛩️ 🎈 📡 🥇 | 🔗 windbornesystems.com?utm_source=b...

Here's an interesting and worthwhile project employing drones, robotics, and AI: « 'Smart Skies, Healthy Waters' Named a Winner of the Fifth 'Water Breakthrough Challenge' » Read the rest of the Skyports press release with a link. | 🛩️ 📡 🚁 ⚡️ 📰 🥇 | 🧵 1/2 | 🔗 skyportsdroneservices.com/2025/05/smar...

So … 👍🏻 or 👎🏻 or 🤷🏻 ? | 🛩️ 🚁 📹 🗳️

An open letter, of sorts, to @jay.bsky.team and other @bsky.app stakeholders on the recent implementation of 'blue check' verification. (📸 Katja Schulz via Wikimedia under CC BY 2.0, cropped) | 🦋

Y'know, if you're still actively reading or posting on that other platform (hint: 🐦), you're actually part of the problem rather than part of the solution. While we're on the subject, if you screenshot the latest outrage from there and post here, that ain't helping, either. 🤦🏻‍♂️

The unspeakably awful weather most wise aviators do their utmost to avoid, the brave folks at @noaa.gov fly towards, and into, with intention. The cozy-sounding 'bumpiness' belies what we mortals would undoubtedly find terrifying. 😱 We're in awe of their work and truly thankful for it. | 🛩️ 🥇

« Chilean wingsuit pilot Sebastián ‘Ardilla’ Álvarez has completed a breathtaking flight, submitting preliminary claims for multiple FAI World and South American records. » Distance: 53,448 m; time: 661 s; altitude: 12,639 m. Their press release with link. | 🛩️ 🪽 📰 📹 🥇 | 🔗 www.fai.org/news/sebasti...

Of all the flying car projects we follow, this one looks most like the way we imagined they would look when we were kids. CycloTech has just reported the first flight of their 'BlackBird' demonstrator aircraft. Their press release with link. | 🛩️ ⚡️ 📡 🚁 📰 🥇 | 🔗 www.cyclotech.at/blackbird-de...

A new issue of BluFly 🛩️ kicks off today. And what's not to love about that Jon Davison cover photo taken at Garah, New South Wales, Australia in 2013. | 📍 🇦🇺