Features

F-16 Didn’t Attack School Corrections to your story on the F-16 in New Jersey (NewsWire, Nov. 8): “… school was not in session Wednesday night when a National Guard F-16 …” It belongs to the Air National Guard. The National Guard might infer the Army National Guard. There is a difference. “… fired on Little […]

I flew a Piper Arrow recently from Anoka, Minnesota, to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Somewhere near the Pittsburg Class Bravo airspace we were getting traffic advisories… Approach: Baron N###, traffic is a Piper Arrow at 11 o’clock, 2 miles. his response……. Thanks Pittsburg, we already have him on the fishfinder.

As I was casting about for something to write about this month I came across the Air Traffic Bulletin at the FAA’s Web site. The FAA issues these bulletins on a regular basis and controllers are supposed to read them (the hard copy versions) during our normal duties. Most of us do (sooner or later) […]

VFR On Top A word of caution to those flying VFR on top (NewsWire, Nov. 1): Using the cloudbank as the horizon can be misleading. All too often, you can encounter cloudbanks that are slanted significantly.Joel Premselaar Two ex-military pilots noticed a big, filed out nick in the prop of their Cessna before take off […]

Another Airbus story…There is a certain airline that flies Airbus A319s out of Lindberg. The following was overheard there recently… Controller: Roger [A319], turn left heading 140. A319: (No answer) Controller: [A319], Left turn, please. Now make the heading 120. Good rate, please. A319: Ah, Departure, the airplane won’t let us do that. (pause) Controller: […]

Poor Flight Instructors At the age of 79 and some 61 years of flying and 40 years of instructing before open-heart surgery and two heart attacks years later finally made me stop flying, now I see that the poorly paid flight instructor has to make a logbook entry certifying the pilot he’s flying with is […]

The discussions here in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport range from prosaic to fairly intense. Last Sunday evening some of the regulars returned from their annual mid-October color tour on a particularly windy day and got into it over speeds to fly on the approach. The group had “ooh”-ed and “aahh”-ed at the […]

While flying IFR between Indianapolis, IN and Columbia, MO my wife and I encountered some mild turbulence at 6000. She’s a nervous flier, so I decided it would be a good idea to find some smoother air. Cessna N12345: Center, Cessna 12345 would like to climb to 8 for smoother air. Center: 345, climb approved. […]