Features

Thirty-Minute DCA Rule Last week I flew into DCA on United 602 from ORD. We were told by the cabin crew that the 30-minute rule [all passengers in their seats] still applied in spite of media reports to the contrary. When questioned on it, they said the Captain told them it was so. On further […]

Occasionally heard on the MRI ATIS on slow days (and on dozens of other … ATII … across the country). Advise on contact you have information ECHO…Echo…echo…

Flying airliners has changed quite a bit during the past 50 years but the pilots have remained the same.They always appear to be dependable, clean-cut and boringly similar on their surfaces, but they possess traits that the flying public doesn’t detect.These personality traits aren’t just limited to airline pilots, although with the amount of time […]

Wings to Adventure I tried to tune in the program you advertised, “Wings to Adventure” on the Outdoor channel but it was only hunting, first for turkeys then for deer (News Features, May 29). Is this a paid-per-view program? I can’t get it for some reason. I have the outdoor channel but no aircraft programs. […]

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in Twin & Turbine, Jan. 2005, and is reprinted here by permission. You know all those little cubbyholes at the pilot shop where you find Jeppesen aeronautical charts? Imagine a factory filled with thousands of them. Aisle after aisle of cubbies filled with charts stacked six feet high. You […]

Another day, another air show… I was “in the queue” for landing at Oshkosh a couple of years back. As everyone knows, landing aircraft are spoken to but don’t verbally reply to the FAA controllers. ATC to Two ahead of me: Brown Cessna, land on the Orange Spot. Rock your wings if you copy. (The […]

It’s time for us to have a heart-to-heart talk again, folks. Time is short. This is the last summer we’re going to have before the really big retirement wave of controllers start. That would be in January of 2006 if you want my opinion. It’s already started, of course. It isn’t going to hit all […]

General Aviation Security & Public Fears Let’s stop preaching to the choir (NewsWire, July 14). Whenever GA makes the news, listen carefully to the patter coming from those who do not fly. The public instantly forgets the positive stories (i.e., Rutan’s space shot), and yet they easily remember negative reports. I still endure hearing about […]

If you’ve read my previous columns, you know that I have advocated changing the way we train new pilots. The old, maneuvers-based training is no longer meeting the challenge of today’s technically advanced aircraft and the evolving national airspace system. We’ve got to spend more time teaching folks to make good, solid judgments and to […]