The equipment is different, sure, but so is the standardization, pressure to excel and the adult supervision. 

Getting and staying ahead of even the fastest airplane is simply a matter of planning, practice and, well, aggression. 

Finding and learning the lessons from others’ mistakes is all part of our continuing education as pilots.

Runway layouts can make it easy to get confused or forget the missed approach course when circling to land.

There are almost as many checklists as there are pilots flying, but they all may lack one critical feature.

Isn’t taxiing supposed to be one of the “easy parts” of being a pilot? At first glance, it might appear that taxiing an aircraft is much, much easier than flying it. A non-pilot might think, “There are really easy-to-read signs, just like on streets, right? You turn left, turn right, stop. Just like a car, […]

So I’m flying along one day, fat, dumb and happy in the pattern at the Winchester (Va.) Regional Airport, KOKV. When I lived in the area not too long ago, Winchester was our preferred local practice field when Leesburg Executive Airport (KJYO), my airplane’s home base, got too sporty. There were many other area airports […]

If you ask a pilot, “Have you ever panicked while flying?” and they respond, “No,” watch them closely. They’ll probably lie to you about other things, too. Speaking for myself, the times I experienced panic were a little more, uh, “justified,” maybe, and they hit me right quick. Just what is this thing called “panic?” […]

I live in Fargo, North Dakota, where winter lasts anywhere from six to 13 months of the year. When I first moved back to Fargo after living elsewhere for quite a while—Fargoans call it “living abroad”—I asked the Fargo airport manager how much it would cost per month to tie down my airplane on his ramp. […]

I learned to fly “the old-fashioned way,” in a Cessna 152 with its roots firmly in the Eisenhower administration. It had seemingly endured approximately one million hours. I had various flight instructors—none of them were any good, of course, in my eyes, because I had 14 hours of flight time and I was in my […]