features_old

In17 years as a designated pilot examiner, I administered over 4,000 flight testsfor a variety of certificates and ratings. During that time, I was witness to agreat many unusual performances by all kinds of applicants. Some were humorous,some tragic, but all were interesting. I wanted to take this opportunity to sharea few. “I’ll Take A […]

Single-pilot IFR is a subject near and dear to my heart,because so much of my own flying falls into that category. Back in 1966 when I startedflying serious IFR in single-engine aircraft, a relatively small percentage of privatepilots were instrument-rated, and most considered single-pilot IFR (SPIFR) to be a riskyproposition, something on the order of […]

At the insurance agency where I work, we talk with hundreds offellow pilots every week about aviation and insurance. I am amazed at the number of pilotsthat do not know whether or not their life insurance covers them if they die in a generalaviation accident. Do you? For example, many employers provide group term life […]

Hot Fun In The Summertime? It has been a pretty good month in thePilot’s Lounge. Summer is here and the airplanes are beautiful. For the secondyear in a row we have had great weather, so the old saw, “what comes aftertwo days of rain in Michigan? Monday” is not holding up. As one of thepilots […]

Now that previous columns have littered the runway with theory and attempted to explain manifold pressure, propeller RPM, and mixture, I’d like to present some suggestions for in-flight techniques to extract better performance from these engines. Some of it will be a little repetitive from prior columns in an attempt to make this column more […]

Everybodytakes checkrides. It simply goes with the territory – if you want to fly, anFAA Inspector (Fed) will examine you from time to time or you will be tested bya Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE). In a 17-year career as a DPE, andhaving administered over four thousand flight tests as a DPE, I believe I haveseen […]

After you’ve decided on type, size, seating capacity, engine,airframe, mission, performance, and so forth, ad infinitum, you eventually get tothe two final considerations: How much will it cost to buy and how much will it cost tooperate? The first part of this question is beyond the scope of this article, but here’s a goodway to […]

How cold is cold? Oil pressure isn’t enough! Bearings need clearance… …And pistons do, too The world’s finest preheat Multipoint electric heaters Engine and prop covers Other electric heaters Leave it on all the time? Forced hot air Althoughpreheating is something most of us first learned about in private pilot ground school, itremains a subject […]

“Sayyour altitude?” No other three-word snippet of ATC phraseology strikes such fear into the heart of apilot. You know you’re in radar contact, that you’re squawking Mode C, that yourtransponder reply light is bright enough to read by, and that the controller knowsperfectly well what your altitude is. “Say your altitude?” is ATC rhetoric for”both […]