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Flight schools have always experienced a substantially higherdrop out rate than almost any other educational endeavor. Thisproblem has plagued the entire aviation community for as longas I can remember, and, believe me, that’s one very long time.We can speculate as to the causes for this phenomenon foreverwithout reaching any firm conclusions. Basically, there are twokinds […]

Recent reporting by AVweb and other aviationpublications illuminating the Civil Air Patrol’s (CAP) participationin Operation Drop-In and related anti-drug efforts by the federalgovernment has highlighted a fundamental shift from the CAP’straditional primary mission, search and rescue. No longer isthe organization’s central focus on its role as the auxiliaryto the U.S. Air Force but, increasingly, it […]

Fair warning! I’m actually going to say some very nice things about the FAA in this column. If you don’t like this sort of thing, skip this column and comeback for the next one. Yes, yes, I’m of sound mind (well, as much as I ever am), and I am not being coerced, this is […]

Itwas a beautiful day to go flying. The air was smooth, the airplane performed flawlessly,and the landing was so smooth that one passenger asked “are we down yet?” As youcomplete your after-shutdown checklist and open the cabin door, you spot a stranger in awhite shirt and dark tie walking toward your airplane, and then your […]

Subpart A – General 119.1 Applicability. (a) This part applies to each person operating or intending to operate civil aircraft- (1) As an air carrier or commercial operator, or both, inair commerce or (2) When common carriage is not involved, in operations ofU.S.-registered civil airplanes with a seat configuration of 20 or more passengers, or […]

After a short rendezvous with friends at the TWA Ambassadors Lounge on June21, 1998, at Saint Louis Lambert Field, we headed for Gate 25 on Concourse C. We were metby a frenzy of news reporters stalking the gate area. Several Saint Louis area televisionstations eagerly awaited the arrival of a father and son, who would […]

Way back when the CAA (predecessor of the FAA) decreed that forty hours of training and practice wasa sufficient amount of experience and training for the PrivatePilot Certificate, it no doubt was. In fact, it was easy to preparea student for the responsibility of the Private Certificate withinthe allotted forty hours, thirty-five under FAR Part […]

You know you’re in trouble when a memo from the chief pilots starts out “It has come to the attention of this office…” Well, the FAA may be in trouble with me, because it has come to my attention that it may be official policy at (at least) one FSDO that simple failure to time […]

Knowledge Tests are required for thePrivate, Commercial and Airline Transport Pilot certificates and for the instrumentrating. If you know the material, what follows is a surefire way of passing whichever ofthe knowledge tests you are attempting, and doing so with a high score. I have used thissystem for a great many years as I prepared […]

Ms. Jane F. Garvey Administrator Federal Aviation Administration 800 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20591 Dear Ms. Garvey: A recent incident demonstrates a number of problems with the current system of FAA handling of alleged violations, and why you were absolutely right to put a stop to the Form 2150-7 “ticketing” plan. A couple of […]