The instructor looked at me out of the corner of her eye and said, “Okay, you try the cyclic, I’ve got the collective and the pedals.” I hadn’t flown a helicopter for almost 10 years, and I really didn’t know how much I remembered. We went through the usual three-step exchange of flight controls. “You […]

This article first appeared in the Aviation Safety Magazine. It was a fun hangar-flying session, right up until one of the local instructors got serious for a moment. He warned us that the tower at a local Class D airport was “issuing a pilot deviation a week, so have your NASA forms ready.” The alleged […]

It was well after dark when we arrived over the unfamiliar rural airport. We were descending toward that green and white airport beacon, and I thought I could see the headlights of my brother-in-law’s crew-cab pickup truck in the parking lot. “Watch this,” I said to my daughter, and I clicked the push-to-talk switch seven […]

Where I come from, we call it a “Discovery Flight.” It’s a short flight that gives a non-pilot an introduction to the flight school and flying in general. “You’ll take the controls!” is a time-honored way for flight schools to market the flights, which I really enjoy doing. Some of the customers have never been […]