Flight Training

Congress has mandated a 1,500 hour minimum flight time requirement for scheduled air carriers next summer, and unless FAA regulations come along to supersede it the “impending pilot shortage” that even the general media has latched on to could become a reality sooner than later. When regulation outpaces thinking, and policy is made without concern […]

Simulators can affect the time and cost of flight training, and the pace of technology makes it easier than ever to access them, but if you listen to Frasca — which has more than 50 years of experience in the simulator business — access shouldn’t be the only concern. Frasca has been in business since […]

What compelled 45 women from Anchorage to Chesterfield, N.H., to trek to Vernon, Texas, a tiny north-Texas town where there are more trucks than cars? All had heard about a unique program called Girls in Flight Training (GIFT) Academy that provides free ground and flight instruction for women in all stages of flight training. The […]

In five years since its birth, Redbird has gone from zero to number one in its market niche. It has put more than 300 active-motion flight simulators into general aviation pilot training centers. It has introduced a compelling price for performance argument within the flight training segment. And it has wrapped all that in an […]

Flight training syllabi for the Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, Instrument Instructor Refresher, Crew Resource Management, and Part 135 Initial and Recurrent online training courses are the among new courses announced this week by King Schools. The company says its Part 135 training courses are crafted to fit smoothly into operators’ own pre-existing training packages. And […]

The team responsible for the development of Microsoft Flight has been laid off and plans for adding future content have been scuttled, but the free download version of the flight sim will remain available, for now. Critics complained that the flight simulation program lacked extensive terrain and aircraft options and fell short in its support […]

A Senate committee is preparing to vote on FAA Administrator nominee Michael Huerta, who met with AVweb Wednesday at AirVenture and commented on third-class medicals, drones, ADS-B and more. Historically, the administrator’s comments in these sessions are friendly, but cordial and carefully worded, as a matter of course. They generally do not reveal much about […]

photo by Daysi Manzano Click for a larger version Growing up, Daysi Manzano always had to compete with guys.”I remember boys saying, you can’t do it, you’re a girl,” she said. “That’s why I decided to go into mechanical engineering.”Manzano is now a senior at York College’s Aviation Institute and president of the school’s Women […]

After a couple years editing IFR magazine, I sometimes think I’m at least familiar with most kinds of flying backgrounds. The details of each story are rich with differences, but the general themes are familiar. Then something comes in to remind me how little I know. This one came in the old-school, snail-mail way: “I […]

I achieved a degree of fascination and competence with celestial navigation over 50 years ago as an Air Force navigator and recently have found that some of my flying friends have expressed an interest in the basics of this “lost” art, because … well, just because. Here’s a primer for any of you who might […]