Pelican’s Perch

I was awakened by a phone call from a good friend. His opening words were, “Man, am I glad to hear your voice!”My instant response to that is usually, “Oh %$#@! Who bought the farm this time?”He said, “There was a fatal Mustang accident at Camarillo this morning and I’m happy to hear you weren’t […]

In my last column we covered where I think pilots of light piston aircraft should be looking during takeoff and the initial-climb phases of flight, say to 1,000 feet AGL. In my opinion, virtually all attention should be outside the cockpit unless there are no outside references available to keep the airplane upright, climbing, and […]

On one of the mail lists I frequent, a newcomer wondered why people bothered to look outside on takeoff, and stated that he was deliberately “eyes inside,” focused on the instruments from liftoff to 1,000 AGL.Well!He got well and truly (but nicely) roasted, and a very lively discussion followed. In trying to quantify things, the […]

There seem to be a growing number of people who think that a cylinder head temperature (CHT) of 380 F is a universally good target to use for setting the mixture.Folks, it just ain’t so.It may work some of the time on some engines, but it’s a long way from universal, and I’d like to […]

The Shell company recently published their Shell Aviation Tech Talk #15 (990 Kb Adobe PDF file) and distributed it to all pilots in Australia and New Zealand. I’m getting a lot of questions from readers there, and from graduates of our seminar.The bulk of the report is an excellent treatise on detonation and pre-ignition, well […]

I have read more nonsense in “The Media” about the British Airways 747 that made the Los Angeles-to-England crossing on three engines than I can recall about most aviation “events.” I long ago gave up on “media” when it comes to aviation reporting, but this one is leading a lot of pilots astray, and we’re […]

As I type this, the Brazilians have finally released the two pilots involved in the mid-air collision of their Embraer Legacy jet with a GOL Airlines 737 on Sept. 29. They have spent more than two months under “house arrest,” with their passports confiscated, preventing them from leaving the country, with no charges filed against […]

Editor’s Note: Because of ongoing controversy with the Beech T-34 wing spars, John Deakin updated this 1999 column in May 2005. His updates are [bracketed in red], but the entire column is even more relevant today than it was then. Ground all Bonanzas?Well, no, not immediately, and all parties will deny that this is even […]

Many thanks to those who wrote and said they missed my column, some even asking if everything was OK. I’m happy to be back, and things are more than OK, they’re great! For the personal, non-column stuff, please see the sidebar below on the right.On rare occasions in my career I’ve been in a small […]

Pelican’s Perch #80: Gear-Up Landing In A 747? – (Articles – Nov. 21, 2004) You know the cliche: There are two kinds of retractable-gear pilots in the world – those who have landed gear-up, and those who will. AVweb’s John Deakin is back with his Pelican’s Perch column, and relates his own heavy-jet gear-up story. […]