Flight Training

The author in a moment of self-assessment following his first taildragger lesson in the Citabria. We tricycle-gear drivers don’t know jack about flying. Tricycle gear makes nearly every landing a greaser. (Well, if you’ve ever seen one ofmine, we’ll call every landing “survivable.”) And, once we’ve learned to fly, wenever much worry “whence the wind.” […]

After you’ve looked at the weather maps and read the observationsand forecasts for a flight, a quick glance at the latest satellite images can help bringeven the cloudiest weather picture into focus. Knowing how to interpret the images canalso help keep you away from dangerous weather.

So, last July, Kal says to me: “Ohhh-kay.” (Honest,he’s straight from the cast of Fargo – maybe that comes from growin’ up inNorth Dakota.) “You’ve done pretty well on the practice IFR patterns with me playin’ATC. Now it’s time for you to do the real thing.” Two weeks earlier I had passed my first flight […]

Several years ago our local sheriff tried to check out in a Cessna L-19 Bird Dog he had obtained for the county following some major thefts at local farms. It did not go well. OK, that’s an understatement. He set some sort of record for groundloops on landing. He went through two instructors trying to […]

A pilot who requests flight following (VFRtraffic advisories) or who flies IFR on a cross-country can expect to talk to a number ofATC controllers. Each controller works a sector of airspace, and as a pilot approaches theborder between sectors, the controller instructs him (or her) to contact the nextcontroller on the appropriate frequency. Complying with […]

It wasn’t exactly what I hadexpected. Let me explain. I am a 1,500 hour pilot with about half those hours in a V35A Bonanza Ihave owned for seven years. I fly about one hundred hours per year – a combination of VFRand (mostly) light IFR in our usually mild Central California climate. I have participatedin […]

The flight instructors handbook says that the more intense is theexperience, the better it is remembered. During one of my early lessons, my CFI allowed me to experience an intense moment which senta jolt of terror through my nervous system which has ingrained in mean important concept that I will never forget. During my preflight […]

I did not have a clue what I was in for. Young, naive, but with a thirst for the air that has yet to bequenched, I approached Mansfield Airport some 20 odd years ago andclimbed into what I thought was a small trainer airplane, theformidable Cessna 150. Then my instructor began the beguine. We climbed […]

I took my primary flight training in Cessna 150s. The 152 was justa new bird, the first one at Birds Nest just fresh from the factory,and unsold. It would be mine, but not until primary flight training{test of the landing gear trunion} was over on somebody else’sairframe. Leaseback aircraft are all old models, generally bustedup. […]

I was a terrified frequent flyer. Business forced me to travel,but it wasn’t pleasant. My fears were so strong that, at one point, Iwent to my boss’ home on Saturday to cancel a trip with him, closingthe conversation with, “So, that’s it. Fire me, demote me, but Iain’t gettin’ on another airplane.” “So,”you ask, “let […]