Features

I need a new phrase. The ones I know just don’t quite fit. There’s a growing trend in aviation — for both pilots and controllers — and it troubles me: We aren’t paying close attention. The “little things” seem to slip through the cracks more often than in the past.I’ll just talk it out and […]

NASA Langley’s Many Wind Tunnels Thanks for the article, “Blended-Wing Prototype Nears Flight Test” (NewsWire, May 11), about model testing of what the article called “the X-48B, an advanced-concept, fuel-efficient blended-wing body, in the Langley wind tunnel in Hampton, Va.” But please note that NASA Langley’s historic Full-Scale Tunnel — important as it is after […]

There’s a club for that, too… An exchange overheard between an Australian charter company and ATC. The company was in mid-April flying a DC-3 carrying a wedding party at 2000 feet over Sydney harbour while the nuptials took place. The flight’s pilot made sure ATC was aware and ready to coordinate a return to the […]

Spending time in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport was once probably merely a vice, but over the years it has become a habit. This time it was a weekday evening. I had flown with a student and stuck around after he headed home because it was quiet and I’d run across something I […]

Kudos to ATC I would like to commend the tower personnel at Smyrna, Tenn., (MQY) for the excellent service given on May 6. EAA was holding their Sport Pilot Seminar there and the Tower made every effort to accommodate these smaller and slower aircraft.My primary reason for writing is that I was flying a powered […]

The following exchange occurred between my student, the tower, and me at KLVK on 05/08/06… Cessna N1234 (Student): Livermore tower Cessna 1234 at Sierra ready to taxi 25R with India. Tower: Roger N1234 taxi to India. [Student gives me the “Huh? You read it back,” look.] Cessna N1234 (Instructor): Tower N1234 confirm you want us […]

This much I know: Sun ‘n Fun is my first big airshow of the season and every year manages to put a new spring into my aeronautical step. Like many pilots, I emerge from the doldrums of winter ready to see lines of new airplanes, scads of new products and shiny faces everywhere. Where Oshkosh […]

This article originally appeared in Aviation Safety, February 2004. At various points in the careers of most pilots, there come times when the pilot attains mastery of the airplane and, therefore, mastery of the air. Sometimes those episodes are fleeting, beaten back into submission by some kind of learning experience that convinces the pilot that […]