Flight Planning

It’s not often the deadly serious nature of a fighter intercept is greeted with roaring approval from the commander in chief and his political supporters but a NORAD F-16 took center stage at a Trump rally last week. The Viper was scrambled to confront an aircraft that had strayed into the TFR around President Donald […]

Many years ago as an instrument rated private pilot, I had the opportunity to take a mountain flying course in the Colorado High Country. Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport, known today as Northern Colorado Regional Airport, was home to a Designated Pilot Examiner who knew every mountain peak and valley south of Cheyenne. After several days […]

The Colorado Division of Aeronautics has announced that 52 new aviation weather cameras installed in partnership with the FAA’s Alaska Weather Camera Program are now operational. The cameras are located on 13 AWOS stations in Colorado and designed to provide a way for pilots to get a near-real-time visual picture of weather conditions in the […]

When we reported that Dr. Jon Weiswasser flew into New York’s Big Three airports in April (and neglected to acknowledge that he’s a vascular surgeon in addition to being a drummer for an Eagles tribute band) it was a novel and kind of surreal thing to report. But since then, thousands of GA pilots have […]

The coronavirus pandemic will hit operators who fly in Canada squarely on the bottom line as Nav Canada, the not-for-profit private corporation that runs air traffic services, hikes fees for commercial operations an average of 29.5 percent. Nav Canada isn’t allowed to make money but it also has to earn enough to cover costs and […]

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) announced the launch of a new online flight planner on Wednesday. The customized version of the iFlightPlanner platform is intended to replace the AOPA’s previous online flight planning tool, which is being retired at the end of the month. iFlightPlanner features include a Google Maps interface with U.S. […]

Citizens aren’t the only ones isolated these days and a New Jersey pilot took advantage of the empty skies in what is normally the world’s busiest airspace with a video tour of the big three New York airports in his RV-8 last week. “I flew my RV-8 from Caldwell, NJ to EWR>LGA>JFK the other day […]

Almost since its inception, creative pilots have used FlightAware’s graphics to trace artistic renderings over the map underlay (some not suitable for a family website) but not many have conveyed the sense of social responsibility evident in an Austrian pilot’s 24-minute track last week. In what looks like a freehand effort, the unidentified pilot took […]

Until 2004, Flight Service conducted most preflight briefings. Then self‑briefing arrived. By 2017, 96 percent of all pilots self‑briefed and 83 percent of flight plans were filed online. But many of us don’t know how to get a thorough self‑briefing. Between 2010 and 2013, the NTSB could find not weather briefing records in 32 percent […]

The nine people killed and three injured in the crash of a Pilatus PC-12 near Chamberlain, South Dakota, on Saturday were all members of the same prominent Idaho family according to a report in eastidahonews.com. The aircraft reportedly came down about 12:30 p.m. shortly after takeoff from Chamberlain bound for Idaho Falls, Idaho. Local officials […]