Flight Training

It’s a cold November Friday evening. I amstanding in the baggage area after deplaning a Boeing 737 at Denver’s InternationalAirport. Could it be that I can actually learn the basics of flying Boeing’s most prolificjet in just two days? I am asking myself why I had abandoned my wife, pregnant with our soon to arrive […]

Radar traffic information service — commonly known as VFR flightfollowing — is a service provided by air traffic control (ATC) and available to all VFRpilots which can enhance your flying safety. While receiving flight following, you’ll bein radio contact with a radar controller at a Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) orAir Route Traffic Control Center […]

The Continental Airlines flight is en routeback to my home outside of Denver. The B-737/300 is climbing through FL 280. Mysix-foot-five frame is packed into seat 5D and there still appears to be blood circulationto the extremities. The ride is going well, but I harbor a secret wish. If only the flightattendant would announce calmly, […]

It wasn’t really a bad day, just a little challenging. The wind was gusting to about 15 and it was bumpy. The clouds were solid at 3,000 feet, but the visibility was great. Students were working hard in the crosswind and the gusts, and a couple of pilots were sitting here in the Lounge drinking […]

As the snow piles up around the windows at the virtual airport and some of the resident airplanes grow funny appendages on their landing gear, I always ponder the fact that many pilots will spend a pile of money to put their feet into skis but few ever explore flying airplanes with skis attached. That’s […]

Lockheed Hudson In my career I have flown with many flying instructors, and likemost pilots, I remember my first flight quite vividly. It was in a Lockheed Hudson flownby Captain Harry Purvis AFC, and which took place at Camden near Sydney in 1949. Harry wasa highly-experienced and well-known pilot who had flown with Charles Kingsford […]

Now that previous columns have littered the runway with theory and attempted to explain manifold pressure, propeller RPM, and mixture, I’d like to present some suggestions for in-flight techniques to extract better performance from these engines. Some of it will be a little repetitive from prior columns in an attempt to make this column more […]

Early inmy consulting career, I began to notice certain approaches and traits that were common tosuccessful professionals. On the flip side, while working with struggling professionals, Isaw a commonality in their mistakes. The area where the successful professionals excelledwere often the areas where struggling professionals made their mistakes. All technical experience and expertise being equal, […]

I was working as a disk jockey for a small radio station inWashington, Ind., where I grew up. And since my program schedule didn’t start until 6:00PM I had most of the day off. Now you have to remember that a small town has shall we saya limited menu of things to keep a 22-year-old […]

The manifold pressure (MP) gauge is a very simple instrument, but what it does is a mystery to many pilots. Simply put, if you do not fully understand what that instrument is telling you, you cannot possibly understand the engine, engine management, power settings, or troubleshooting. Quiz Time First, allow me to pose a few […]