Flight Planning

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 […]

Following hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the general aviation community distinguished itself by mobilizing to fly disaster-relief supplies and personnel into the affected areas and people and pets out. Being one of the fraction of one percent of our nation’s population that is a pilot, I watched news coverage of my sister and brother aviators who […]

The IFR environment is different from most any other human experience—voluntarily strapped into a seat, within a cocoon of aluminum and a maze of wires, flying miles above the Earth. Without any visual reference, this event can be both stimulating and stressful. Of the three phases of IFR flight; departure, en route and approach, we […]