Instrument Flight

This article originally appeared in Aviation Safety, Feb. 2008. It’s an interesting phenomenon: As student pilots, we master VFR traffic patterns in just a few hours. After earning the private, we work on our instrument rating. Initially, nothing is quite so nerve wracking as a difficult approach. Then, our careers progress and we land that […]

This article originally appeared in IFR Refresher, March 2008. Pilots and controllers rely on each other to communicate unambiguously, especially when working together to complete an instrument approach. The rules of the game are supposed to be clear, yet somehow pilots and controllers continue to clash when an aircraft is in position to join the […]

The Real Deal click for a larger image Having an instrument rating doesn’t mean that you have to fly in the clouds-it just means that you can, legally. In fact, the FAA doesn’t require a pilot to have any experience whatsoever flying in actual IMC in order to qualify for, or maintain, an instrument rating. […]

This article originally appeared in IFR magazine, Mar. 2006. Bill’s CFII was a 767 captain who wanted him to get as much real experience as possible. They hunted low-pressure systems from the West Coast to the Great Lakes during a wet February, sniffing out whatever light icing they could find. For those thinking, “Can you […]

This article originally appeared in IFR magazine, Mar. 2006. There is a chain of FBOs in the Midwest famous for warm cookies, parrots with rude vocabulary and impressive line ladies. The ramp full of airplanes indicates that pilots are attracted to, and distracted from, competing FBOs by these interesting things. Looking in the cockpit of […]

This article originally appeared in IFR magazine, Mar. 2006. In spite of the avalanche of stern e-mail that’s sure to come, let me start with my core position: Flight planning is dead.I can hear it already, “Boy, didn’t they teach you that you should ‘plan your flight, and fly your plan?’ ” They sure did. […]

This article originally appeared in IFR magazine, Oct. 2005. Circling at your home airport isn’t that tough. Familiar landmarks help establish proper lateral spacing from the runway. Because you know the landmarks well, you can pick them out from circling altitudes and in low visibility.Circling to an unfamiliar field in challenging conditions is another story. […]

This article originally appeared in IFR magazine, Jul. 2005. It was late in 1981 or maybe early in 1982, because that’s the only time in the history of O’Hare that the draconian departure restrictions in this tale were used. To understand how those departure restrictions fit into our story, you need to know a little […]

This article originally appeared in IFR magazine, May 2005. IFR magazine asked its readers to contribute defining moments of IFR flying. Here are a few where the moment was made by the company as much as the flight. Tanks for the Help I rotated among all three CFIIs at a small flight school near Philadelphia, […]

This article originally appeared in Aviation Safety, Feb. 2005. Controllers are just like pilots: All are human and make mistakes. Most are good, know the rules, do everything they can to make your flight efficient and safe, and make sensible judgments. Only a tiny fraction are highly paid chair-warmers too lazy or bored to have […]