Search Results for: vfr

It wasn’t exactly what I hadexpected. Let me explain. I am a 1,500 hour pilot with about half those hours in a V35A Bonanza Ihave owned for seven years. I fly about one hundred hours per year – a combination of VFRand (mostly) light IFR in our usually mild Central California climate. I have participatedin […]

Since the editors of AVwebon this great new medium have been gracious enough to permit me to use this space to writeanything I please (so long as it is in reasonably good taste), I intend to take fulladvantage of their kind offer. The freedom to speak my mind is absolutely wonderful! Sincemy writing has often […]

The flight instructors handbook says that the more intense is theexperience, the better it is remembered. During one of my early lessons, my CFI allowed me to experience an intense moment which senta jolt of terror through my nervous system which has ingrained in mean important concept that I will never forget. During my preflight […]

I remember my first flight in a Level D simulator. It was abusiness jet, and I was lost among the electronic flat-panel displays, auto-throttles, andflight management systems. Totally “where-the-heck’s-the-airspeed-indicator”lost. Apparently I wasn’t the first person to stare confusedly at the glass cockpit like itwas a wall of televisions at an electronics store. “That’s why you […]

Let’s take a shot some of the common aviation myths and “Old Wives’ Tales” (OWTs) so common in this wacky business, some of which I intend to make the main subject of future columns. Many people equate a gift of gab, gray hair, hours aloft, or years in the business with pilot quality. High-time, or […]

For nearly a year now, I’ve been hearing rumors of asmaller-sized aviation GPS from Lowrance Avionics to supersede the rather hefty AirMapthat they introduced in 1996. I was concerned that Lowrance might be following the lead ofthe Garmin GPS III Pilot, a unit that I don’t care for one bit. When Lowrance introducedtheir 12-channel AirMap […]

Using mnemonics is an effective way to learn airspaceclassifications, and nothing suits Class B airspace better than the letter B. Class Bairspace surrounds “Big” airports in a shape that looks like a big upside downwedding cake. Class B airspace isn’t reserved only for big airplanes, however. Flying toand from a Class B airport or transitioning […]

If you think of the Flight Standards Service as the lawenforcement arm of the Federal Aviation Administration, then the Flight Standards DistrictOffice (or FSDO, pronounced “FIZZ-doe”) is the FAA’s equivalent of a policestation, and the Airworthiness, Operations, and Safety Inspectors who work at the FSDOsare the FAA’s cops. Most FAA cops…er, Inspectors…are good guys: dedicated, […]

The ICOM IC-A3 and -A22 transceivers are subject ofa separate AVweb review article. When ICOM introduced its new,lower-cost IC-A4 handheld VHF air band transceiver in March 1998, I was anxious to checkit out. ICOM dominates the aviation handheld transceiver market, and deservedly so: theirhandhelds have always been the best on the market in my opinion. […]

(Most photos are thumbnails.  Click them to view larger,higher-resolution images.) WhenDiamond Aircraft’s snazzy little Katana emerged into the flight training scene three yearsago, it seemed an easy setup for a bloody nose or two. “Way too small,” some said. “A plastic airplane? Are you kiddin’? That thing won’t last a month on thetraining line.” “No […]