Technique

When I was a callow lad, private pilot ground school was interactive. It was interactive not in the sense of the Pavlovian clicking of choices on a webpage, but of having a human instructor who actually talked and answered questions. Chalk was a thing then. One of the instructors must have been an old school […]

Possibly the country’s only “clothing optional” airstrip is about to be officially recognized by the National Parks Service (NPS), and the Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF) is urging members to let the NPS know they support the initiative. The Saline Valley Warm Springs Airfield, better known as the Chicken Strip, is located adjacent to an abundant […]

As he does from time to time, Dave, the proprietor of the flight school here at the virtual airport, sent out a mass email to his aircraft rental customers—students and certificated pilots—asking them to come to an evening gathering to socialize and discuss an issue of interest to all of us. The evening’s theme was […]

When discussing preflight inspections, I sometimes hear pilots remark, “I don’t know what I am looking for.” That’s unfortunate, because the pilot is the final authority regarding the aircraft’s airworthiness. As a pilot, you have the responsibility to accept the aircraft as-is and be on your merry way or reject it as unsuitable if something […]

Fixed-wing pilots start learning stall recognition and avoidance during pre-solo training. The private and sport pilot checkrides require recovering from developed stalls with minimal loss of altitude, and stall and spin awareness are (or at least should be) refreshed during flight reviews for the duration of one’s flying career. But unintended stalls still put dozens […]

All student pilots practice off-airport landings but a 36-year-old beginner was in the left seat for a freeway landing that looked pretty textbook on Friday. The student was on final for Gillespie Field in El Cajon, California, when the Cherokee he and his instructor were in went quiet. The instructor managed to tuck the aircraft […]

The other evening I headed into the pilot’s lounge at the virtual airport as the sun was approaching the horizon. I wanted to sit in one of the, um, experienced, OK, beat up, recliners, look out the windows at the runway and experience the quiet magic as dusk settled in. Once in the room, I […]

Most pilots venture into windy conditions with enough skills and smarts to know how to either avoid or cope with them. But wind-related accidents are still commonplace, so clearly we don’t always get it right. One reason for this may be fairly simple: With the exception of blowing snow, tornadoes, dust devils and some cloud […]

FAA Approves Ultralight VTOL First of all, the FAA does NOT “approve” ultralight vehicles. The letter shown only states that in the FAA’s opinion, the craft appears to meet part 103 requirements. It either meets part 103 or it doesn’t. If it does, then the FAA is out of the picture. Mel Asberry Motorcycle gear […]

Around 20 years ago, a cold snap in the mid-southeast U.S. brought temperatures to well below freezing. The following day, my employee and I headed to the airport in midafternoon. We planned to fly our borrowed twin Commander to Milwaukee, returning it to its owner. We walked directly to the airplane, which had not been […]