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You are an experienced pilot and you are about to tackle a tough winter flight in your Bugsmasher II which (except for pitot heat, carburetor heat, and a 5-inch by 7-inch “storm window”) has no icing protection. Being inexact as usual, the area forecast calls for occasional light to moderate rime and mixed icing in […]

The FAA’s Airport and Aircraft Safety Research and Development Division, Aircraft Safety Research and Development Branch, issued a fact sheet on September 6, 2000, which begins: “Aircraft icing continues to be one of the major safety threats to aircraft operations during hazardous weather conditions and can result in catastrophic accidents unless adequate precautions are taken.” […]

Aviation changes so rapidly that it’s easy to make yourself feel like an old-timer without spending a lot of time as a pilot. I jumped in right before the alphabet airspace arrived a few years back, and so I have always been able to tell those who came after me: “We didn’t have any of […]

I don’t always fly airliners. Based on years of seniority and the fact that people don’t think we fly much anyway, it isn’t surprising that I was enjoying a day off and was spending it at the local tennis club. I have always said that if rejection and loss bothered me, I wouldn’t still be […]

Some people say that you could put two pilots in Yankee Stadium and, before the game was over, they would be off in a corner somewhere talking about airplanes. Several years ago I moved to Clear Lake, Iowa. Shortly after arriving, our mutual interest in aviation led me quickly to my new neighbor, Bob “Doc” […]

“Cheap” and “aircraft ownership” are mutually exclusive terms, it seems. If you own an airplane, you’re resigned to the fact that the privilege will cost you a handsome sum, perhaps much of your disposable income. Yet if flying isn’t the center point of your life but you still want to own an airplane, there are […]

I‘ve flown with a number of CFIs over the years. I’ve always claimed that every CFI, regardless of experience and style, has something to teach every pilot. At least, that had been my experience up until one day recently. It was then that I had to do something I’d never done before. I had to […]

I had this great idea, see. I’m always getting questions like, “What’s it like being a controller?” and, “So, what does a Safety Rep. do, exactly?” I never really have a good answer for either of those. At least, not an answer that I can give in less than a minute. So I thought I’d […]

On the morning of June 18, 2002, Scott perished doing what he loved:practicing aerobatics in a Yak-52, in the mountains of Brentwood, Calif. He hadrecently been working to advance his aerobatic skills, and placed 13th among 19pilots in his first competition, at Paso Robles, the weekend of June 8. He hadalso flown aerobatics in Citabrias […]

Richard Johnson of Winter Haven, Florida, isn’t your average flight instructor. For one thing, he is well past his early twenties, which the silvery gray hair poking out from under his baseball cap attests to. He has no particular interest in building hours to take him to the next rung of the professional pilot ladder, […]