Instrument Flight

Technically advanced aircraft (TAA)—those with a primary flight display (PFD), multi-function display (MFD), and GPS—are sexy. Pilots are drawn to them like Pooh Bear to honey. Besides being eye-catching, TAA attempt to address some of the biggest problems in aviation by providing pilots with a lot of supplementary safety information. Moving maps designed to improve […]

Aviation lore is full of heroes like Chuck Yeager, who saved the day while calmly muttering on the radio something about “some little fire going in them engines” or such. The quiet, unflappable, laid-back flyer has been the role model for young pilots since the days of the Lone Eagle. But is there such a […]

Back in the 1950s, social critic and philosopher Lenny Bruce said that no one is shocked anymore. He was probably correct, given our national tolerance for the excesses of those in the entertainment biz, and those seeking to join the weirdness. Yet, I find my level of amazement at flight schools that grind out new […]

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 […]

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 […]

Last Thursday, December 17, marked the 80th anniversary of the first flight of the Douglas DC-3, probably the most remarkable and successful transport created in the first half-century of powered flight. A buddy of mine kindly texted some photos to me that day—he was in a DC-3 in southern California on a commemorative flight. Of […]

No matter how much automation we fly behind, no matter how many air-data computers are installed and no matter how simple it is, it’s likely a pitot-static system—pretty much like the one Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic—is what generates airspeed and some other basic flight information aboard the aircraft we fly. These systems are relatively […]

The pilot wasn’t having much luck on his flight review. As he and his instructor were about to depart, the airport weather went from a manageable SCT006 to BKN006, requiring an IFR clearance. Since they had planned to depart VFR, they didn’t file an IFR flight plan. To top it off, the part-time tower was […]

Only a small percentage of the controller work force in the system today—or for that matter, in the past—are or have been pilots. Controllers are taught to perform the duties and provide the services that are outlined in the controller’s bible, the FAA Order 7110.65, Air Traffic Control Manual. While they have been made aware […]

As winter unveils its hand across the nation, it seems appropriate to take a look at one of the last of aviation’s “firsts,” the aerial circumnavigation of our globe via the Poles. The first flight around the world was made in 1924 by a U.S. Army team. The North Pole was overflown in 1926 by […]