FBOs

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 […]

Depart “Depart” is test pilot slang for “Departure from controlled flight.” It can refer to something as mild as a wing drop during a stall to a high-altitude “upset” that results in the airplane literally falling out of the sky. Enrichment Virtually all engines have some mechanism or device to enrich the mixture at high […]

The only other words that will more quickly capture the attention of the steely-eyed, granite-jawed airline captain are “Uh, oh, they forgot to load the crew meals,” or “Company’s talking about a cut in per diem.” The latter two don’t even bear thinking about, but we do cheerfully train for the engine failure. But let’s […]

Since the editors of AVwebon this great new medium have been gracious enough to permit me to use this space to writeanything I please (so long as it is in reasonably good taste), I intend to take fulladvantage of their kind offer. The freedom to speak my mind is absolutely wonderful! Sincemy writing has often […]

Let’s take a shot some of the common aviation myths and “Old Wives’ Tales” (OWTs) so common in this wacky business, some of which I intend to make the main subject of future columns. Many people equate a gift of gab, gray hair, hours aloft, or years in the business with pilot quality. High-time, or […]

It had been my intention to make each column entirely different, but given some of the questions and responses to my first column, “Throw Away That Stupid Checklist.” I think a follow-up is in order. Apparently, a lot of people read the headline, or the lead, or scanned the column quickly, and came to some […]

First, welcome to this, my first column for AVweb. I’m free to say what I want, without fear of censorship and only enough editing to keep me from embarrassing myself with major errors in spelling or grammar. That’s nice, but it does mean I can’t blame my editor for content, and all remaining mistakes are […]

As much as we might like to carp about the occasional circuitousrouting or ground delay, this much is certain: The U.S. air trafficsystem is arguably the best in the world. What’s less certainis how it got that way. How did we advance from the tenuous airmailroutes of the early 1930s to the sophisticated IFR system […]

I write this with considerable personal embarrassment, in thehopes that someone may learn from it. Sunriver, Oregon, is a lovely summer and winter resort communityabout 20 miles from Mt Bachelor, a popular ski spot. We renta condo there for a week every year, during the kids’ Spring break.I usually fly down with one or both […]