Search Results for: vfr

Being aviation professionals, we need to train for what is possible, even if it seems unlikely. It’s the things you least expect that inevitably will happen. If you’re not ready for them, you’ll definitely struggle. The Unicorn Clearance It was a quiet morning—the pondering kind. There weren’t many planes, maybe four, in my low-altitude sector […]

Various special use airspace (SUA) and the military operations that accompany them are somewhat enigmatic—we know we should stay away, but we really don’t know the particulars. And if you’ve ever taken a longer trip, encountering an SUA is inevitable. So it’s critical that we understand how to operate in and around them. That’s why […]

Sunny times will return to our local grass strip, but this day was clearly not that day. Cold winds, low clouds and scurfy ice accumulations on the few hangars there indicated that not only would the groundhog see his shadow on his official day, but he would probably find himself frozen with a coating of […]

There are a couple of new wrinkles for the hundreds of private aircraft operators who use Palm Beach International Airport after Monday. When the presidential TFR is in effect (10-nm inner ring, 30-nm outer ring) for President Trump’s trips home, operators will have to register passenger and crew information through its eSecure Flight system before […]

Submitted by Roger O’Neill, Overhead Intelligence. In early 2025, the FAA is anticipated to release a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for Part 108, aimed at regulating Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations. This landmark step could revolutionize drone operations in the U.S., offering greater airspace access to commercial drone operators while maintaining […]

My flight school required us students to fill out a TOLD (takeoff and landing data) card with weight and balance, and fuel planning prior to each flight. Most of the time, our flight training was consistent: 1.0-1.5 hours of block time, full fuel, two passengers, a couple of flight bags. Plan it once and it’s […]

(This story originally appeared in Aviation Safety Magazine.) “Everyone talks about the weather, but no one ever does anything about it.” Stop me if you’ve heard that before. The same could be said about managing the risk of general aviation. We—both FLYING and the industry as a whole—spend a lot of time preaching to pilots […]

This month’s panel for planning is for a mid-1980s Cessna 172 equipped with a Garmin GNS 530W and GNS 430W, S-TEC single-axis autopilot and original round-gauge flight instruments. Its owner is ready to make the plunge into an all-glass, all-electric avionics suite and is sold on the Dynon SkyView HDX Certified suite because her experimental […]

From AVweb reader Eliot Danner: Flying with a friend in my Baron from Teterboro, New Jersey, to Winchester Regional Airport (KOKV) in Virginia, it was a pop-up thunderstorm kinda day. Potomac Approach was dealing with a storm cell over Dulles International and various diversions, issuing holds to long-haul jets—the usual circus. Me (after waiting for […]

From AVweb reader Erik Eriksson Rounding out my 1980s helicopter training in a Robinson R-22 in Maryland, my instructor upped the game by sending me on one final cross-country flight, including a landing at Dulles International. As I got close to the airport and Potomac Approach established my position, the following conversation ensued:Approach: Maintain current […]