Flight Planning

The aviation community is continuing to respond to the Trump administration’s proposal on Monday to privatize the air traffic control system. FAA Administrator Michael P. Huerta released a brief statement, saying he supports “looking at new ways to help us provide stable and sufficient funding to more rapidly modernize our system, while maintaining the highest […]

Holding at the holding point Nelson, New Zealand, we were waiting for the cabin to be cleared before calling ready.Tower:“Link XXX, are you ready?”Link XXX:“Just waiting on the cabin.”Tower:“It’s right behind you.” Justin Zangerl

The newest version of ForeFlight’s electronic flight bag software will include advanced fuel and performance planning tools for an additional $100 per year ($200 per year over the basic subscription price). Tyson Weihs, ForeFlight co-founder and CEO, said, “The new performance product that we’re launching delivers high performance flight planning for high performance airplanes.” The […]

Heard at JFK one summer day after a very long ground roll and subsequent lift off by a British Airways 747. Tower: “Speedbird XXX noise violation.” Speedbird XXX:”Send it to the ()(*&^% Queen.” Real story. Dan Jenkins

Heard recently one morning on JFK tower frequency. JetBlue: Tower, is our speed compatible with the aircraft ahead of us? Tower: As long as you don’t go to warp factor 6, you should be fine. Marty Twersky

The Bahamas is the first neighboring country to the U.S. to accept BasicMed as a medical qualification for U.S. pilots flying in its airspace. BasicMed went into effect on May 1 and allows pilots to fly up to five passengers on day or night VFR or IFR pleasure flights (not for compensation or hire) in […]

Aviation weather columns typically talk about hazards in terms of elements: “Watch the 0 to -20 degrees C layer for icing.” “Be cautious of wet, clear nights because of fog,” etc. We can always learn more from a change in perspective, and we can do so using surface charts from the Aviation Weather Center website. […]

I was at HEF and heard this on ground frequency. RJXXX: HEF ground this is RJ NXXX at APP FBO ready to taxi with ECHO, ECHo, ECho, Echo, echo, ec Jerry Dahl

Anytime you get a group of flight instructors together, the topic of weather will enter the conversation in some form. It may range from how crummy it always seems to be when a CFI has nothing but primary students on the schedule to how miserable it is to preheat a Cessna 152 in the winter […]

Back before Houston’s Hobby airport was given a Class B veil, I had my single engine Beechcraft based there. It was a busy mix of private planes and Southwest Airlines jets. One afternoon, as I was returning to the airport, I was directed to overfly the field and turn final to runway 17. At Hobby, […]