Search Results for: vfr

Ask aircraft owners about their experience with an annual inspection and you are likely to get many different opinions and scary tales of what was and wasn’t done. Unfortunately, there are shops and mechanics doing business haphazardly and that have little concern for customer service. I have been an IA mechanic and shop owner for […]

Why do holiday newsletters begin with, “It’s hard to believe another year has passed”? Have we not yet accepted the earth’s orbit around the sun? Or is it truly unfathomable that no matter what reality dictates we’re doomed to repeat the same dumb things year after year? And I’m not just addressing you folks in […]

Here’s a common scenario: You bring your airplane to the avionics shop for its 24-month IFR pitot and static system certification and the tech says you’ll be wheels up in a couple of hours. Thirty minutes later while you’re cooling your heels in the pilot lounge, the technician tracks you down with news you don’t […]

The Weekender is hangar flying for a few days as the SocialFlight calendar is full of events to help brush up on flight safety — especially for those in the midst of winter weather. Learn about the hazards of icing in a Redbird simulator in Burlington, North Carolina, on Saturday. Group scenarios will include airframe […]

The Weekender hopes to start the new year right by getting others airborne, and SocialFlight found at least one New Year’s Eve party to kick things off. TheLiberty Aviation Museum in Port Clinton, Ohio, will host a 1940s-style Big Band Hangar Dance complete with live music, food, free dance lessons and theme contests. The event […]

Flying an RV-8 from Los Angeles, California to Oxfordshire, England in 19 days may strike many as an adventure of a lifetime. For me, the 7000 NM trip was my way to return home after working four years in the Tesla Motors Design Studio in Hawthorne, California. Airfields along the Crimson Route, partially developed in […]

Garmin is bringing enhanced flight plan filing capabilities to Garmin Pilot, which now incorporates the option to file flight plans directly with Lockheed Martin Flight Services. This results in increased flexibility and instantaneous flight plan delivery when filing flight plans within Garmin Pilot for iOS and Android customers. Additionally, an updated Android user interface leverages […]

The Cirrus SR20 wasn’t the first “plastic” airplane, but the composite Cirrus was far enough along the cutting edge to stir up the pilot community. Of course, some loudly asserted that no “real” pilot would want one of those things—it’s got a parachute, for crying out loud. Yet the Cirrus SR20 and its offspring the […]

Third-class medical reform legislation is on its way to the Senate floor after gaining approval from the Commerce, Science and Transportation committee Wednesday. The committee had delayed its vote in November on the Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2 for lack of a quorum, and now its advocates hope for a Senate vote later this month. […]

The pilot wasn’t having much luck on his flight review. As he and his instructor were about to depart, the airport weather went from a manageable SCT006 to BKN006, requiring an IFR clearance. Since they had planned to depart VFR, they didn’t file an IFR flight plan. To top it off, the part-time tower was […]