Technique

OnOctober 31, 1999, 217 passengers and crew lost their lives when Egypt Air 990crashed into the sea off Nantucket Island, Mass., 40 minutes after having takenoff from New York’s JFK airport. With most of the wreckage now recovered fromthe ocean, investigators can find no evidence of mechanical failure that wouldwarrant reconstructing the airplane. Investigation into […]

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Oxygen generators are improperly placed in a forwardcargo compartment. A fire starts, and the airplane is destroyed. No one waskilled when this happened to an American Trans Air DC-10 on the ground inChicago in 1986, but the lesson went unlearned. Ten years later, oxygengenerators fueled the fire that led to the ValuJet Flight 592 crash […]

01/13/1982 16:01 LOCATION: Washington, DCCARRIER: Air FloridaFLIGHT: 90AIRCRAFT: B-737-222REGISTRY: N62AFABOARD: 79FATAL: 74GROUND: 4DETAILS: Crashed shortly after takeoff into the Potomac River and sank. Failure to turn on engine anti-icing system. Crew inexperience in icing conditions. Cockpit Voice Recorder Transcript Air Florida flight 90 – DCA-FLL Boeing 737-222 N62AF 71 (75) + 4 CAM-1 Captain’s Cockpit […]

Inwriting this article, I am reminded of the often-used patter by younginstructors in which the student is told to keep an eye on the enginetemperatures and pressures during the takeoff. The reality is that oil andcylinder head temperatures are slow to indicate trouble, while oil pressureneedles can flicker and vary by small amounts depending on […]

The FAA and I don’t agree on something — well, more than one something — but I think this one thing is rather important. It’s the way they wrote the Practical Test Standards. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I agree with the idea of the PTS and overall, it’s a good thing. It lets everyone […]

The July 1999 issue of AOPA Pilot magazine featured an article by Editor-at-Large Thomas A. Horne titled, “In-Flight Emergencies – Ditching – Putting wings in the water.” According to AVweb‘s Special Projects editor Doug Ritter, who is also publisher and editor of the Equipped to Survive Web site, Horne’s article includes much valuable information on […]

The manifold pressure (MP) gauge is a very simple instrument, but what it does is a mystery to many pilots. Simply put, if you do not fully understand what that instrument is telling you, you cannot possibly understand the engine, engine management, power settings, or troubleshooting. Quiz Time First, allow me to pose a few […]

A story currently unfolding on a maillist that I subscribe to isreason to review preparations for winter flying. It seems that a group of people headedout on a flight a few days ago and has not reported in. They disappeared from radarsomewhere in the Sierras. It has been cold up there and the chances of […]

Timeafter time, you put the landing gear switch in the “down” position, wait a fewseconds, and are rewarded with those three reassuring green down-and-locked indicatorlights. Then it happens…no green light! You stare at the lights in a few moments ofdisbelief and denial. You feel a knot growing in your stomach. And then you realize youhave […]