Search Results for: vfr

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 […]

Military Airspace Revised In response to a recent Question of the Week (QOTW, Mar. 3): “Should the military be allowed to take over any more airspace without giving up an equivalent amount? What’s fair when it comes to MOAs?” As a past member of an airspace-design team at Minneapolis Center (ZMP) I have experienced many […]

FSS Privatization FAA mismanagement and union “whining” put the final coffin nails in a government-run FSS program (NewsWire, Feb. 7). I am pleased to see that the FSS Union/Harris Corp. proposal was not accepted. Harris was the main contractor in OASIS (the government replacement for Model 1). “New blood” is needed and hopefully Lockheed Martin […]

There’s no end of innovation in the world, and here are a few interesting gadgets for aviators that we’ve run across lately. The Flightcell unit, made in New Zealand, allows pilots to use a cellphone or satphone through their headset, while remaining connected to the radios — perfectly legal down under, but in the U.S., […]

Overheard last April near Miami, Florida, just as Sun n’ Fun was kicking in… Pilot: …request VFR flight following to Lakeland. ATC: N123, unable at this time… Pilot: Roger, unable. Any idea when can I expect it? ATC: Try again … this time next week.

_______COLUMNS Say Again? #46: When Things Go WrongTo get your IFR clearance at a non-towered field, you could call Flight Service or the local Center RCO, but you know you’re gonna get a delay waiting for some arrival to cancel IFR. Just launch VFR and pick up your IFR clearance in the air, right? AVweb’s […]

According to the TSB, the string of errors began before Flight 183 left Toronto on its daily nonstop flight to Kelowna, a city of about 100,000 people 200 miles east of Vancouver. An Air Canada dispatcher, aware of a major forest fire burning near Kelowna, called Kelowna Tower to ask if the airport was even […]

I spend an awful lot of time trying to explain how the system is supposed to work. Those explanations are often at odds with what people have experienced first-hand. This leaves a lot of people confused. It just leaves me frustrated.But no matter how conscientious we are, things can and do go wrong. As a […]