Proficiency

You are on approach in busy airspace with an even busier cockpit…you are changing frequencies, receiving vectors, looking for traffic. You are well into the descent phase. As you flip through your kneeboard to get ready for the final phases of flight, you instinc- tively start looking for the runway. You see one in front […]

Call me a glutton for punishment, but Ive logged more than 4000 hours as a civilian primary flight instructor. Ive worked in both Part 61 and 141 schools and owned and operated one in the frozen tundra of eastern Michigan. Currently Im an instructor at a 142 school, which means I train pilots to go […]

SocialFlight has again presented us with a wide array of breakfast, lunch and recurrent training fly ins this weekend. Pilots can’t beat the deal at the Breakfast Fly In at Logan-Cache Airport, Logan, Utah. The sponsors are hosting a free pancake, egg, sausage and fruit breakfast from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. […]

Sydney, Australia pilot Paul Reynolds was the only one around who could help the teen-aged passenger on a Piper Cherokee (previously incorrectly reported as a Cessna 150) whose pilot blacked out at the controls on January 25 over Forbes, New South Wales. AVweb’s Russ Niles spoke with Reynolds about the actions he took to help […]

The stick-and-rudder component of flying airplanes, while challenge enough, is the lesser difficulty compared to learning to makedecisions that wont kill you or at least rend metal. Teaching it or learning this has everything to do with recognizing risk and hazards for what they are and preparing accordingly. In fairness, I think most pilots do […]

On Jan. 16 the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued its annual Most Wanted list of needed improvements in transportation safety. The aviation-related items are a need to identify and communicate hazardous weather conditions to pilots, address the unique characteristics of helicopter operations, strengthen occupant protection, improve fire safety and eliminate pilot distractions. At a […]

With all the literal and figurative bells and whistles in todays cockpits, something as mundane as losing communications with ATC is rare. One reason is the stuff we have in the panel these days is a couple of light years ahead of even two decades ago in reliability. But loss of communications-going no radio, or […]

A New Zealand pilot and his passenger are nursing bruised egos after two strokes of bad luck became after-the-weather fodder for news programs all over the world. Peter Horn and his passenger were on a sightseeing flight in Horn’s Jabiru light single over Martin’s Bay, just north of Auckland, on Friday, when the engine quit. […]

In this week’s Cub Theatre installment, AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli provides a video examination of the runway turnback or the so-called “impossible turn.” Well, it’s not impossible at all, although it’s not necessarily easy. If you want to try it, you’ll need to practice it first. And think about making the turnback decision before you take […]

Accidents, like elections, have consequences. And as youve probably read, a consequence of one accident is that the ATP will soon rise to the level of unobtanium, so if you always wanted one, 2014 is the time to act. And better be quick about it. The accident, of course, is the Colgan Air crash in […]