Short Final: Better-Than-Passing Grade
From an AVweb reader: I conduct airfield vehicle driver training at a large-hub Part 139 airport with a very complex layout. The training for each...
Short Final: Student Workout
One morning on departure from Peoria International Airport: Peoria Approach: “I bet you didn’t think you were going to get this type of workout when...
Short Final: Mirage Alert
I was inbound for landing at Reid‐Hillview airport and had a traffic alert off to my left, 300 feet higher and faster. About a...
Short Final: More Information, Please
Overheard on the airwaves, somewhere, sometime ... maybe: Air Traffic Controller: “Cessna 1234X, say position.” Student Pilot : “I’m, ahhhh, approaching the XYZ VOR.” Air Traffic Controller...
Short Final: Good Guidance
As a fresh pilot and first-time aircraft owner back in the early 1980s, I was excited to fly my little two-seat Grumman on a...
Short Final: Aircraft Identification
From AVweb reader Ron Rands: Overheard on the radio while en route to Oshkosh. (An Albatross is a Grumman-built Amphibian. See photo): Albatross: “Peoria approach, Albatross...
Short Final: Consider This
The aviation safety culture can be brutal and unforgiving. Consider this sage advice from Angus Kydd, one of the instructors at my home-base airport,...
Short Final: Numbers Game
During the early days of World War II in the Pacific, the Curtiss P-40 served heroically well, despite its shortcomings against the Japanese Mitsubishi...
Short Final: Hold Your Horsepower
From sister publication IFR Magazine’s "On the Air" letters page: A female tower controller at a flight-school airport was known to have a sultry voice...
Short Final: Retirement Planning
From AVweb reader Erik Klavon: After an unusually long period of silence on a Denver center frequency, I heard the following exchange:Unknown pilot: “Still there?”Denver...