Search Results for: vfr

User Fees This week’s Question is missing one important option (QOTW, May 4). I would support user fees in the form of license and registration fees if they provide me with some level of control of the FAA.Proposal: Replace the FAA with a non-profit corporation with a volunteer board of directors that is elected by […]

The Class B airspace around Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is some very high-traffic, complex airspace, and a new proposed rule aims to make it easier to use and reduce the potential for midair collisions. The plan proposes to expand the eastern boundary to ensure containment of instrument approaches, improve the containment of jet aircraft […]

Meanwhile, the Reason Public Policy Institute, a libertarian think tank that has proven influential in some D.C. circles in recent years, released a report last week on the issue of funding the nation’s air traffic control system. The institute has long been a supporter of user fees, but now has backed down somewhat on the […]

Flying is a lot of fun and isn’t particularly dangerous for pilots who actively manage the risks. Since three-quarters or more of accidents are pilot-induced, we’re largely in control of our fate if we pay heed to the missteps of others and avoid risky behaviors. Hence, it’s totally appropriate that many government and private safety […]

If you’ve ever been to the South, you might have heard the expression, “It’s fixin’ to come up a bad cloud.” It’s just our quaint way of saying that storm clouds are brewing. If you’ve ever flown in the South, you know when we say, “A bad cloud,” we mean bad. Big, bad thunderstorms are […]

From time to time, we who frequent the Pilot’s Lounge here at the virtual airport put on an evening seminar in which presentations are given on topics of interest to us. Attendance varies, but is usually large enough to fill most of the chairs we borrow from the You Stab ‘Em, We Slab ‘Em Funeral […]

Symphony Aircraft joined the glass panel club on Tuesday and became the least expensive certified aircraft to offer the feature and the only one priced at less than $200,000. The two-place SA60, as it is now called, with the Glass IFR package, which includes the Avidyne Entegra primary and multi-function displays, the Avidyne Emax Engine […]

Overheard while flying through Chattanooga, this exchange with approach control and an aerial photo operation… Skylane 12345: Chattanooga we would like to take pictures of the Chockamauga Dam, one rolling to right and one to left. Control: Approved. Maintain VFR. Skylane 12345: Chattanooga, we need to climb to 10,000 to take a couple more. (short […]

Seeing as I’m supposed to be on vacation this week, I thought I’d write about a subject that I enjoy: vectoring. I guess that doesn’t make you (the pilot) feel all warm and fuzzy inside, does it? Knowing that controllers enjoy vectoring you all over the sky for spacing when you just want to go […]

On Feb. 2 of this year, a Bombardier Challenger CL-600 ran off Runway 6 while attempting to take off from the Teterboro, N.J., airport. The ensuing crash involved a fence, two cars, a warehouse and a fire … but though four people were seriously hurt, no one, amazingly, was killed. Speculation immediately afterward focused on […]