Flight Planning

A few years ago I was returning to KHLN after an evening flight. It was a beautiful night and well into dusk and not another voice on the radio when I made my call into HLN. N3969B: Hln tower cub 3969B, eight miles Northeast, inbound landing Victor. HLN tower: cub 69B, not in sight, report […]

It was Saturday afternoon some years ago at our mid-sized, midwestern airport. Things were hopping; Air Guard jets were shooting landings on the long runway, airliners were arriving and departing, two or three aircraft were in the pattern practicing, transients were coming and going, and then there was my friend and me in a 1945 […]

One of the benefits I have found of being in the aviation writing business is that I get the chance to fly a fair number of other people’s planes. Whether I am doing it to write a flight review on the type, test or check out new avionics, or am simply offered the chance to […]

The fall at Juneau Airport, where I’m a controller, generally sees pretty gross days, rain and lots of wind. One day we had six miles of visibility and winds of more than 25 knots and gusts more than 30. I was working a Coast Guard helicopter out and it occurred to me that I never […]

When I trained for my private pilot certificate, 91.103 was drilled into my head. “Each pilot in command,” it says, “shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight.” The core of that is straight from the Boy Scouts: be prepared. Now, as an air traffic controller, it concerns me […]

On Tower frequency at a rural class Delta: Cessna: Uh, tower caution some sort of otter or marmot just went right in front of my plane. Tower: It was a groundhog. That is our airport groundhog. Cessna: Ok regardless of type he just crossed Alpha without clearance tell him to check his frequency. Tower: We’ll […]

The Vintage Air Rally’s next event will run for six weeks from Ushuaia, Argentina, to Lakeland, Florida. Setting off from the southern tip of Argentina on March 1, 2018, the group expects to fly 9,000 miles, passing through 19 countries, and arrive in Florida just in time for Sun N’ Fun. For fifteen teams with […]

I heard the aircraft part of this conversation to Grand Forks FSS at 21:05 local time recently. I was too far away to hear the controller but they wanted to know the time off for the aircraft. Cessna 1234: “I was airborne at 9:05, pause, err, ahh, make that 26:05” No further calls were made. […]

A contest sponsored by Lightspeed and CloudAhoy is inspiring general aviation pilots to draw in the sky. Contestants make line drawings using the path of their airplanes, recorded using CloudAhoy, a smartphone-based GPS flight tracking app. The concept, on a larger scale, was popularized in the last few years by jet aircraft manufacturers who used […]

I was in the lineup to depart LAX. A Delta jet was ahead of me and a Short Bros. 360 was ahead of Delta. Delta (strong southern accent): “Ah, ground control, could you tell us what kind of aircraft is that ahead of us?” Short Bros. Pilot: “Ah, we are a Short Bros 360.” Long […]