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Much has been written about the fact that judgement is very difficult,if not impossible, to teach. We have all seen examples of flightstudents exercising poor judgement, and even on fairly rare occasionsflight instructors demonstrating faulty judgement, but when botha student and an instructor exercise poor judgement in a singleepisode it is bound to lead to […]

A tale of misconduct by top FAA lawyers How did Bainbridge get in trouble? The O’Brien report The “smoking gun” paragraph Who are these FAA lawyers? That’s the way the system works? How could this happen? Who will protect us from the FAA lawyers? September 14, 1998 Ms. Jane F. Garvey, AdministratorFederal Aviation Administration800 Independence […]

At a party I attended awhile back, a lady was extolling the virtues of her latest macro-biotic diet, and how she wouldn’t drink coffee because it’s bad, wouldn’t touch salt, just on and on about her rather complex feeding routine. All the while smoking one cigarette after another! What is wrong with this picture? So […]

According to my computer database, Cessna/ARC nav-comms fail 83% more often than theKing KX-155. Think about that next time you’re plowing through a cloud on approach. Sureyou have two radios, a hand-held, and perhaps a Gideon Bible you stole from the hotel. Butthat still might not be enough to keep you out of the rocks. […]

There are two FARs that dictate the biennial checks for most general aviation aircraft:FAR 91.413 for the transponder and encoder, and FAR 91.411 for the static system andaltimeter. First, notice that I didn’t mention the pitot system. While any sane pilot would liketo know that his airspeed indicator is reasonably accurate, the FARs do not […]

If you walk out across just about any aviation ramp, you’ll notice few noticeablechanges in the aircraft in the last decade or two. If you open a cowl or two, you alsonotice the powerplants haven’t changed much, either. But look at a few radio stacks andyou’ll see a dramatic progress. In the last couple of […]

VHF Comm Many years ago it was decided that civil aircraft communications radios would use the118-137 MHz band, and would use amplitude modulation (“AM”). Like many otherthings in aviation, this has remained unchanged for many decades. It’s a pity, because ourair-ground communications would have much better audio quality if we could switch tofrequency modulation (“FM”) […]

“ADF” stands forAutomatic Direction Finder. “Direction finder”because it’s job is to point in the direction of whatever station you tune in.”Automatic” because many years ago airplanes used manual direction finders (or”DFs”) which required manually rotating a loop antenna looking for a null on asignal-strength meter. The purpose of the ADF is to point to a […]

It’s getting to be almost impossible to fly anywhere without aMode C transponder. This equipment is now required in all Class A, B, and C airspace,within 30 miles of primary Class B airspace airports, and anytime you’re above 10,000feet. And if the FAA has its way, that altitude will soon drop to 6,000 feet. ATC […]

Distance measuring equipment—often called DME—is one of the most valuable pieces ofavionics in the aircraft. The main purpose of the DME is to display your distance from aVORTAC, VOR-DME, or localizer. (Some NDB stations have colocated DME, but not many.) DMEreduces pilot workload by continuously showing your distance from the station, accurate towithin a half-mile […]