Flight Safety

Healthy Pilot has been covering the BasicMed checklist in the past few installments, but we will be departing from that protocol in coming issues to cover health problems that impact the population in general and pilots in particular. Sleep disorders are up first, a condition that seems ubiquitous. For pilots, fatigue caused by sleep problems […]

To no one’s surprise, those in favor of splitting air traffic control from the FAA are busy planning their next move. After a last-minute grassroots lobbying effort blocked an amendment snuck into the FAA reauthorization bill passed last month that would have laid the legal groundwork for such a move, the CEO of one of […]

I am not a big proponent of memorizing airspeeds. It can be a risky practice if you fly many different types of aircraft. Most of the important airspeeds can be determined from the airspeed indicator (ASI), though there are a few you probably should commit to memory, or at least keep on a placard. Eight […]

The FAA says it’s tracking down the owners of up to 11,000 aircraft operating in the U.S. that may be noncompliant or have expired registrations. The focus of the operation appears to be commercial aircraft but the FAA didn’t make any distinctions in its comments on the topic. “When the FAA does not know the […]

Transport Canada says the suspected human excrement that has landed on cars, people and property in British Columbia over the last six weeks didn’t come from airplanes. About a dozen incidents in which a foul-smelling substance has fallen from the sky have been reported but Transport Canada says its investigation ruled out aircraft involvement. The […]

Aviation has never lacked for dumb ideas. It’s what drives innovation. “Hey, Orville, wanna jump off a sand dune strapped to these really cool wings I made in the bike shop?” What seemed stupid in 1903 is recognized as pioneering genius today. Likewise, countless other notions such as flying inside clouds without reference to the […]

100LL Replacement Fuel I am glad GAMI is putting all the time and effort in this endeavor. However, with an option that costs MORE than what we already pay I’m not at all interested. Sorry but I’ll stick with the lead. The GA world is trying to desperately save itself by finding options to allow […]

The University of North Dakota (UND) has partnered with United Airlines to create a career pipeline program for its flight students. Through the Career Pathway Program (CPP), graduates of UND’s Professional Flight Program now have a direct path to United’s regional partners. Assuming they meet CPP requirements both during school and after graduating, students who […]

From 2005 to 2015, my small flight school offered training in the famously rare Comco Ikarus C42, which was (and still is) manufactured in Germany. I say “rare” because (to my knowledge), only 13 C42s were ever imported in the U.S., and at one point I had three of them in my hangar. It was […]