Search Results for: vfr

This article originally appeared in IFR Refresher, September 2005. What if you knew the ceiling was at 700 feet and the visibility was four miles at your destination airport as you approached it on an IFR flight? It is likely that you would be less concerned about the approach than you would be had the […]

Scud Runner I used to invest in towers. I remember the first tower I had built. It was completed in Sept. ’86 and just missed the Atlanta sectional revision date. It did not make the chart until the next cycle! Its construction did change a MOCA altitude so the IFR guys were alerted. I knew […]

COLUMNS The Pilot’s Lounge #99: Turn Back? You Bet!Press on. Finish what you started. You’re better than the rest. What do the voices in your head tell you when you’re considering turning around in the middle of the flight? AVweb’s Rick Durden had to fight those voices during a winter VFR flight, as he tells […]

Cures aside, pilots of Airbus A320-series airliners are getting new guidance on what to do if the screens on their electronically biased aircraft go blank. “Checklists will be streamlined so re-booting of power is quicker,” an Airbus spokesman told the London Daily Mirror after Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch released a report on an incident […]

I was in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport, a place normally for good friends, good conversation and some support when things were not going well. Yet, Old Hack’s voice was dripping with scorn as he addressed me from about three inches away: “You miserable excuse for a pilot. Now we truly know what […]

F-22 Airshow Debut You state that this is the first time the F-22 has traveled to a civilian airshow (NewsWire, Apr. 10). In fact, the F-22 did a flyby at the Centennial of Flight celebration in 2003 at Kitty Hawk, N.C. Specifically, the flyby occurred on Dec. 16, one day before the actual anniversary. I […]

This article originally appeared in Aviation Safety, January 2004. Currency, endorsements, certificates and “all available information” notwithstanding, the safety of flight depends on the pilot not exceeding his or her capabilities — except for that small minority of accidents caused by calamitous mechanical failure. That’s easy to say, but somewhat more difficult to live by.What […]

This article originally appeared in IFR Refresher, August 2005. Flying in the clouds requires currency and proficiency at flying on the gauges. It’s the pilot’s responsibility to meet the legal requirements before taking off into or flying through instrument conditions.A problem we see too often, though, is when pilots who are not current or proficient […]

Yes, it’s coming! But don’t get excited. You don’t really want what is coming, but you’re going to get it anyway. Remember when I wrote Say Again? #49: Come Up a Bad Cloud? Well, the “storm” is here.They say everybody has a talent. I don’t know if you want to call this a talent or […]

BRAINTEASERS Quiz #105: Think ClearlyFlying instruments is not particularly difficult. It’s figuring out what Air Traffic Control expects that fogs the brain. Learning the hidden powers of IFR and VFR clearances launches any pilot on a direct route to success.