Proficiency

The potential for in-flight icing during an IFR flight—regardless of whether the airplane is approved for flight into known icing or not—means doing serious plotting and scheming prior to departure, and throughout the flight. As has been demonstrated for years, structural icing does bad things to airframes. Best to presume every cloud will contain ice, […]

Thousands of people jump out of airplanes every day but a couple of wingsuit experts have managed to jump into an aircraft in flight after leaving the ground. The stunt was pulled off by Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet, known as the Soul Flyers, in Switzerland recently. The duo BASE jumped from Jungfrau Mountain, one […]

The military aircraft accident rate has jumped significantly in the past year and Sen. John McCain has said it’s the natural result of years of penny pinching with the military. “Perhaps the greatest harm to our national security and our military is self-inflicted. I repeat, self-inflicted,” McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said […]

I’ve been privileged to fly the mountains of the southwest for more than 40 years—with many thousands of hours and more than 10,000 landings. But I’m not an expert, and I would be cautious of anyone who claims to be (Sparky Imeson comes to mind). I have become reasonably proficient at understanding the risks of […]

I mostly make my living as a flight instructor, so I often fly with ten or more students in a week. Not all are “student pilots” in the FAA sense of the term, but they’re all flying with me to get instruction of some sort. They’re seeking new certificates, instrument ratings, tailwheel transitions or they’re […]

Many instrument-rated pilots struggle to maintain their proficiency for IFR. Logging the six approaches, holding procedures and course intercepts/tracking required by FAR 61.57(c) can be quite the challenge for pilots who fly infrequently or who are based in regions where good weather is routine. Simulators and training devices can be major boosts to maintaining proficiency, […]

When I trained for my private pilot certificate, 91.103 was drilled into my head. “Each pilot in command,” it says, “shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight.” The core of that is straight from the Boy Scouts: be prepared. Now, as an air traffic controller, it concerns me […]

The IFR environment is different from most any other human experience—voluntarily strapped into a seat, within a cocoon of aluminum and a maze of wires, flying miles above the Earth. Without any visual reference, this event can be both stimulating and stressful. Of the three phases of IFR flight; departure, en route and approach, we […]

Face it: We love our GPS. Many of us fly with two of ’em installed, plus a portable for good measure. It’s arguably the most revolutionary advance in navigation, automation and IFR capabilities. Satellites now allow the most basic aircraft to navigate with amazing precision. However, there are caveats for modern RNAV pilots. We’ve become […]

Some holidaygoers in ariverside community in the south of France got an airshow plus some drama on Sunday when an air tanker taking off from the Rhone River hit a barge’s mast with its wing. “It is a miracle that there have been no [deaths],” a spokesman for the harbor office at Vallabregues told local […]