Flight Safety

Part of the initial improvements to airline security following September 11 was to upgrade cockpit doors. Ultimately, cockpits will have Kevlar reinforced bulkheads, doors and reinforced door jambs, hinges and locks. However, as an interim measure and to comply with FAA directives, airlines fitted a variety of deadbolts and reinforcing panels to their cockpit doors. […]

Welcome back, class. For those that cut the last session, you can review it here. For the rest of you, here’s a quick review of the highlights from the last session. We covered beacon code assignments, handoffs, initial callups and student pilots using ATC services. In this session we’ll build upon those subjects, explore some […]

My two previous columns about CAF’s “new” C-131 and the development of our normal-procedures checklist for it drew such a phenomenal response, and I got so many excellent suggestions by email, it appears to be in my own best interest to put the emergency stuff up here for comment and critique. Keep those cards and […]

After flying for a few years, many pilots come to feel that airports, just like airplanes, have personalities. Here in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport there seems to be a pretty universal opinion that while each airport is a gateway to the world aloft, some are warm, friendly haunts, as comfortable as an […]

First, some old business … I’m pleased to report that my previous column has had a good response, almost entirely by private email. There are now about 25 people signed up for the C-131 ground school. Many are “crew chiefs” and non-pilot volunteers, some are obviously well-qualified to be SICs, and several are qualified to […]

Stayce D. Harris was born June 8, 1959, in Los Angeles, Calif. She graduated from 71st High School in Fayetteville, N.C., in 1977. In 1981, she earned a bachelors degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California, earned her Air Force commission from USC’s AFROTC program, and began flight training at […]

Simply stated, the function of any expert witness is to educate the trier of fact (judge or jury) so as to lead that individual or group to the same inescapable conclusion that the expert reached. Of course, if, during the discovery process, the expert is successful in educating opposing counsel and leading him or her […]

Since I’ve been writing this column I’ve been reading various and assorted publications about aviation just as I always have. I try to stay abreast of what is going on the the industry and how it might affect ATC. Writing this column has given me another perspective as I read. I’ve always questioned whether most […]

Robert Griffin was born July 30,1924, on a farm near Saint John, Wash. He grew up on another farm near Pullman,Wash., took his first flight with his father and identical-twin brother in aBoeing Mailplane, and learned to fly during high school in a J-3 Cub. After hisfirst year of college, Bob attended a presentation by […]

It started with a bike ride. I was taking advantage of our unseasonably warm fall and riding through a subdivision near a local lake. As I approached a woman who was out for a walk, I heard an airplane. Being genetically unable to ignore any aircraft in the vicinity, I looked and saw it was […]