Flight Planning

I landed at KCMA, Camarillo, CA on a windy day and checked in with ground. Ground: “18 Sierra Romeo, taxi to the ramp via Foxtrot, caution, tumbleweed all quadrants, not my control” He wasn’t kidding either; huge tumbleweed balls were passing over the taxiways and runway heading downwind like a scene from an old Western […]

The City of Santa Monica has approved a contract for shortening of the runway at SMO from 4,973 feet to 3,500 feet. After years of attempts to close the airport entirely, the City of Santa Monica entered into an agreement in January with the FAA that would permit the city to shorten the runway immediately […]

My wife, the captain, and I were flying to AirVenture 2017 in our C-152 in July. We were on an IFR flight plan out of Gainesville, GA (KGVL) and cruising at 5000 feet. We were talking to Atlanta Center. Centre: “Cessna 1234, cleared to FL230.” We just looked at each other and laughed. Fairly quickly, […]

On the Saturday night before AirVenture opened, I was listening on my iPhone to KOSH tower for 27, wishing I was there instead of doing yard work. Evidently, weather was not great so traffic was slow when I heard a pilot tell tower he was turning final. Tower: Low wing cleared to land 27 Pilot: […]

At AirVenture 2017, AVweb’s Geoff Rapoport spoke with Angela Anderson, ForeFlight’s director of marketing, about the ForeFlight Scout—the smallest and least expensive ADS-B in receiver on the market. Designed specifically to integrate with ForeFlight Mobile, they’re on sale now for $200. view on YouTube

Sometimes you just get set up. You got up early, looked out the window at a nearly clear sky and figured you’d fly the 80 miles or so to visit a buddy and hang out at his airport instead of yours. You whipped out your tablet for a full briefing and to make sure there […]

Heard over rural Massachusetts. Cherokee XYZ (tremulous voice): “Albany Approach, Cherokee XYZ five miles northeast of Pittsfield at 3500 feet, requesting fight following to Kilo Oscar Romeo Delta.” Silence: all on frequency were contemplating the Cherokee, a student pilot at the controls, attempting the impossibly long flight to Chicago and then penetrating the O’Hare airspace. […]

Nav Canada, the nonprofit corporation responsible for air traffic control in Canada and over the North Atlantic, said Sunday it had restored its automated flight planning system after the main facility housing the equipment was flooded by a thunderstorm in Ottawa, early Saturday. The flood caused the evacuation of the facility and staff moved to […]

The wishes of ForeFlight users eager to use Jeppesen departure, arrival and approach plates have come true. The partnership between ForeFlight and the famed navigation data publisher was announced in early May, but access to the instrument plates only became available to ForeFlight users Wednesday. The upgrade to Jeppesen charts covering the continental U.S. plus […]

Heard recently on the CTAF frequency at Arlington Municipal Airport (KAWO) in Washington: Cessna 123: “Departing 34, straight out to the west.” Eric Taylor