Features

I was flying through New York’s air space one typical busy Friday afternoon. The controller on 124.07 was shotgunning instructions out to a dozen or more airplanes when a flight instructor grabbed the frequency and started requesting multiple practice approaches into Danbury (CT), thoroughly describing each missed approach and the path to the next approach. […]

Sure it’s a cliche, but examiners still occasionally offer the comment as they hand over the temporary IFR certificate to the newly minted instrument pilot: “Here’s your ticket to learn.” The implication is that while the applicant has passed the FAA requirements, there is much more to mastering this new environment. The first year following […]

We just looked at SocialFlight and confirmed that AirVenture exhaustion is a myth-it’s still summer and everything aviation is going strong-airshows, fly-in breakfasts and even a pig roast. The Pike’s Peak Regional Airshow takes place on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 9 and 10, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Colorado Springs, Colorado, Airport. […]

Several years ago, a large jet flown by a famous British airline was approaching New York for a landing at JFK. They were still at their cruising altitude of FL 350 and had been asking New York Center for a lower altitude continuously for several minutes. New York Center was very busy and obviously had […]

Cast your bread upon troubled waters and inevitably someone tells you to knock it off, because you’re killing the ducks. In that spirit, we tossed a bonus two-part question into Brainteaser Quiz #197: “What’s the best way to enter a traffic pattern at an airport without an operating control tower? And, “Are tailwheel airplanes better […]

AVweb’s weekly review of upcoming aviation events on SocialFlightuncovered a fly-out, the Cessna 150/152 “Cornfab,” a fly-In lunch that includes a presentation on F-105 operations in Vietnam, a fly-in and airshow at historic the historic Wendover, Utah Airport, and a modest Fly-In in Oshkosh, Wisc. The “Weekly Flyers” flying group, also known as Club Cherokee, […]

I was listening to O’Hare ground one claggy fall night, and several arriving flights were being sent to the penalty box due to delays. One arriving flight protested, saying they were promised their gate would be open. Ground:“Flight 123, proceed to the box.” Flight 123:“But we were promised — !” All of a sudden, several […]

A few years back, Jeff Simons passion for flying caused him to look for a way to do his part to energize general aviation-he wanted to help pilots fly more and more often. As he searched, he noted that his friends who were pilots seemed to always be looking for reasons to fly and he […]

No pilot need go hungry this weekend, as our weekly review of the hundreds of events listed on SocialFlight found a barbecue theme at airport fly-ins around the country. The Cortland County Airport, in Cortland, N.Y., invites pilots to fly in or drive to Saturday’s AirFest, offering breakfast from 8 to 11 a.m., an FAA […]

I fly from a small air field outside Johannesburg, South Africa. When I had less than ten hours experience, I thought it would be a great idea to fly to one of the larger (controlled) air fields closer to Johannesburg to refuel. I requested joining and landing instructions from the tower. Very nervously. Tower requested […]