Flight Planning

While landing a Beech Sierra at Sioux City Gateway Airport (KSUX) one blustery summer day (winds 32, gusting to 40, more or less straight down the runway), I chose to use full flaps in an attempt to achieve the minimum possible landing roll — just for practice. Well the gusts got the best of me. […]

Pilot groups in Canada and the U.S. are hoping the FAA backtracks quickly on a NOTAM posted Jan. 1 that is causing major inconvenience for some Canadian pilots and operators. The NOTAM tightened security regulations for aircraft not registered in the U.S., specifically requiring security waivers for foreign aircraft flying in U.S. airspace. What changed […]

Why do holiday newsletters begin with, “It’s hard to believe another year has passed”? Have we not yet accepted the earth’s orbit around the sun? Or is it truly unfathomable that no matter what reality dictates we’re doomed to repeat the same dumb things year after year? And I’m not just addressing you folks in […]

Fort Wayne Approach:“NXXX, switch to tower on 119.1.” NXXX:“Switching to tower on 119.1.” NXXX:“Fort Wayne tower, this is NXXX with you.” Fort Wayne Approach:“NXXX, you are still on the approach frequency.” NXXX:“I was just practicing.” Robb Rosebrook

When was it, to avoid compromising personal limits, you decided not to fly? Sure, serious deteriorating weather conditions are an obvious one. As I write this, severe turbulence SIGMETS from surface to 5000 feet have been issued over northwest Europe, which for me is an obvious “no flight.” But there are some diehards (or dare […]

Way back in 1957, when I was an air traffic control trainee at RNZAF station Ohakea, I heard a Bristol freighter report:“We have just passed the Comet.” … then, a few seconds later, add:“The Comet was going the other way.” (The humor relates to the lumbering Bristol compared to the sleek inbound RAF Comet.) Murray […]

Flying an RV-8 from Los Angeles, California to Oxfordshire, England in 19 days may strike many as an adventure of a lifetime. For me, the 7000 NM trip was my way to return home after working four years in the Tesla Motors Design Studio in Hawthorne, California. Airfields along the Crimson Route, partially developed in […]

While threading my way through thunderstorms coming on shore from a rig in the Gulf of Mexico, I heard New Orleans ATC say, “Tell your boss I like his movies.” After a short pause, I recognized the voice of Harrison Ford: “Thanks, and I like your radar vectors.” Jim Borger

GCA Approach:“NXXXX, turn right one degree.” NXXXX:“No can do.” CGA Approach:“Well, then — turn left two degrees, then right three degrees.” Jack Dennehey

On a particularly stormy day in the Green Mountains of Vermont, I heard the following exchange between a flight on approach to BTV (Burlington, Vermont) and approach control. BTV approach:“NXXXAJ, how was the ride down?” NXXXAJ:“Rougher than a stucco bathtub.” Andrew Walker