Flight Safety

I was working the early morning shift at the Air Ambulance Shopwhen I happened to read one of the many articles written aboutcollisions between aircraft on what controllers call movementareas but what pilots know as runways and taxiways. One of those articles mentioned the well-publicized collisionbetween a USAir 737 and Skywest Metroliner in position for […]

This article appeared in the March 2002 issue of IFR Refresher magazine, and is reprinted here by permission. You probably haven’t been called on lately to define the segments along an approach course, but you might remember a time when it would have been handy to know why the designer created such an obstacle course […]

With Spring just around the corner I thought we should spend some time talking about VFR operations. I know it’s been a while since we’ve covered the real basic stuff in ATC so if you’d like to review what I’ve already written, you can find everything here, including ATC 101 and ATC 102.Speaking of review, […]

First, the usual “housekeeping.” One alert reader pointed out that I had referred to the in-flight mag check, but never explained it. Let me do that in my next column. Some of the excellent “reader responses” (by e-mail and a couple of forums) deserve mention here. Those Skydiving Airplanes First, I don’t think I’ve ever […]

This article appeared in the July 2002 edition of Aviation Safety and is reprinted here by permission. One of the nagging questions that plagues the pilot who doesn’t fly every day is, “Am I really ready for this flight?” The problem is even more serious when contemplating an instrument flight, particularly when the weather is […]

There is a deep, abiding pleasure in discovering a place that is somehow both pilot- and family-friendly; where a pilot can share the joy he or she feels when in the sky with the most important people in his or her life. Not long after I had listened in on a gripe session in the […]

For 35 years, Howard Fenton’s been telling airplane owners about the health of their engines by analyzing their oil. Howard has spotted everything from broken piston rings to excessive bearing wear to worn valve guides. Once he tracked down an airplane he was convinced was about to throw a jug — and it was. In […]

It is a sure sign of old age that you spend your time talking about the past. I almost never do unless asked. Today I found myself getting a hundred-dollar hamburger at an airport greasy spoon with a teenage student pilot son of a friend. He wanted me to tell him some “true stories” about […]

I‘m sure that I’m not alone. All of us, at one time or another, do something stupid. There are no doubt a great many dumb things that I’ve managed to do in my more than seven decades of life, but as an aviator, two particularly stupid and dangerous events stand out. Towing the Line Several […]

Eye of Experience#63:Confession Time – (Articles – Feb 12, 2003) Admit it: You’ve done some stupid things while flying, haven’t you? We all have, and it is always better to learn from someone else’s stupid mistakes than to make even more of our own. AVweb’s Howard Fried has told us about a lot of things […]