Search Results for: vfr

It was a weekday evening and I’d just finished flying with a relatively new instrument student who was proving to be competent, determined to learn, and overall a genuine pleasure from an instructor’s point of view. I’d stopped into the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport out of habit and ran into Old Hack, Sandy […]

When two GA pilots, one flying a Pilatus PC-12 and the other in a Beechcraft Premier jet, encountered an F-16 in a Military Operations Area used by Luke Air Force Base in Arizona last March, they had to take abrupt, evasive maneuvers to avoid the military jet. The incident, after it was first reported in […]

The NTSB said on Tuesday it is investigating a near midair collision at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Saturday in which two airliners flew in close proximity to one another — but the FAA says no such incident took place. The NTSB, citing “initial reports,” said that at 8:36 p.m. local […]

This article originally appeared in IFR Refresher, Sept. 2007. Another pilot once told me he had been caught on top of cloud layers several times during his flying career but always escaped safely by simply calling ATC for an IFR clearance to get below the cloud decks and fly on VFR to his destinations. What […]

Overheard in IFR Magazine‘s “On the Air” I was departing Terre Haute, Indiana. The ATIS said clear below 12,000, but I could see a scattered layer of clouds to the south with tops around 4,500 feet. After tower switched me to departure, there was this exchange: Cessna 123 (me):“Approach, Cessna 123. Request VFR-on-top 5,500.” Controller […]

As part of FAA’s ongoing effort to harmonize its paperwork and procedures with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the form for filing a flight plan is about to change, but only for IFR flights that include RNAV arrival or departure routing. Pilots filing VFR, or filing IFR but without the RNAV arrivals or departures, […]

Randall Fishman won last year’s AirVenture Oshkosh Grand Champion Ultralight and Innovation award for his ElectraFlyer Ultralight, but his latest project at this year’s AirVenture may win even more attention from the ranks of certificated pilots. Fishman has about six flights on his ElectraFlyer-C. With real-world experience behind him, plus calculations in front of him, […]

Click to enlarge Pilots planning to attend AOPA’s Fly-In and Open House in Frederick, Md., this Saturday should be aware that the FAA plans to expand a nearby P-40 prohibited area during the fly-in time frame. The area will grow from a 3-nm radius to 5 nm. Pilots flying in the ring from 5 nm […]

Last week, we left our intrepid band of GA pilots in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, where they all had landed safely in VFR conditions, after a few changes of flight plans to accommodate the weather. The group spent the night there and by 5:30 the next morning they were up checking the weather in […]

Skip Flight Planning Mr. Stephans:I am writing in regards to your article Skip Flight Planning, (Flying the System, May 19). I agree with you! I am a retired Army aviator with 26 years of service. I was an Instrument Flight Examiner for most of those years as well as an Instructor Pilot.Planning a cross-country instrument […]