Search Results for: vfr

If you were paying attention to the news last week, you may have noticed that the otherwise chronically broken Congress actually proposed a bi-partisan budget package. Now lets not delude ourselves into thinking strains of Kumbaya will soon be pealing from the Capitol and the members will be caroling on Pennsylvania Avenue, but this little […]

Representatives in the house Wednesday introduced legislation that would expand the use of a drivers license as an acceptable qualifying medical standard for pilots flying light certificated GA aircraft. The General Aviation Pilot Protection Act would set the drivers license as the medical requirement for noncommercial VFR flights in aircraft with no more than six […]

Letter of the Week:A Technological Solution to a Human Problem? I have several thoughts about the sudden concern by the FAA over sleep apnea in pilots and controllers. The NTSB Safety Recommendation was issued August 7, 2009. Why has it taken more than four years for the FAA to jerk its knee in response? Has […]

It 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 SR20 and its offspring the SR22 quietly and […]

You have a new glass panel airplane that will surely enhance your IFR flying, but you are not instrument current or proficient using the new equipment. You are planning an important business trip in the new airplane but are concerned you may have to file IFR. Add in some pressure to get there with challenging […]

Letter of the Week:Airline Pilot Training Regarding the new flight training regulations: I flew for the airlines most of my life (retired now) have more than 23,000 hours and several type ratings. When an airline I worked for first got the Canadair CL-65 regional jet, the failure rate for upgrade was more than 70 percent. […]

Legally, 14 CFR 91.123 says, When a pilot is uncertain of an ATC clearance, that pilot shall immediately request clarification from ATC. Seems easy enough, but under pressure of time, heavy weather and busy controllers we are tempted to assume that ATC knows its intentions and to accept a clearance as given. Egregious errors appear […]

The fragile relationship between avionics shops and aircraft owners is sometimes stressed at the end of a project. Thats partly because some owners have unrealisticexpectations, assuming the aircraft will be released right after a flight test. On the other hand, shops create stress for themselves when they overpromiseand offer the impression that work on the […]

Letter of the Week:Factoring Human Factors I was interested in the article on the KSN770 published in the Sept. 13 AVwebFlash, in which it states that “graybeards may still prefer [to use] a transfer key” as opposed to using touchscreen controls. I’m not a graybeard (is there a politically-correct term for female pilots, too?), but […]

For years, there was only two choices for a retrofit multi-function GPS navigator-either Garmin’s GNS430 or GNS530-or the current GTN650 and GTN750. Bendix King offered the KLN94 standalone GPS, but it wasn’t an all-in-one WAAS navigator with an open architecture. It also lacked a comm and nav radio and it didn’t have any multi function […]