FLYING Staff

Personal locator beacons are emergency devices that broadcast a distress signal on a specific radio frequency. PLBs are used globally by search and rescue professionals, hikers, mountaineers, and seashore park rangers.  The signal can be detected by coast guard stations or other local rescue teams that may already have an aircraft in the area looking […]

Mountain aviation is a skill that only comes with time and experience. Successfully mastering the skill of mountain flying is necessary for being able to navigate an aircraft above treacherous terrains. Mastering the skill of mountain aviation can change the career of a pilot in numerous ways. For more details about the benefits of mastering […]

Learn about the significance of this important measurement.

One of the most common questions people have about aircrafts is whether or not they have headlights. Most airplanes have headlights, but they aren’t used the same way headlights on a vehicle are used when driving. The headlights that airplanes have are primarily used during select circumstances. For deeper insights about why airplane headlights are […]

What control actually turns your airplane? Aileron? Rudder? The answer may surprise you. Your airplane needs a certain minimum amount of energy, call it airspeed, to lift off the ground and fly.  If your airplane has too much energy, it tends to break.  The area between the minimum amount of energy to fly and the […]

Becoming a pilot is a dream job for lots of individuals, but having an inaccurate understanding of the job’s prerequisites can often prevent people from ever pursuing it seriously. Vision requirements for pilots are one of the many things that the general public tends to be unclear on when it comes to the world of […]

Did you know a helicopter first flew across the Atlantic ocean in 1952? That’s an insane distance. While it’s possible to fly such distances in a helicopter, that journey required a total of nine in-flight refuels.  Helicopters nowadays fly an average distance of anywhere between 250 to 400 miles on a single tank. There are, […]

When most think of aviation, the first thing that usually comes to mind is a pilot. Well, behind the scenes, the person who is responsible for the critical safety measures to keep pilots flying is the aircraft mechanic. Inspections, testing, repairs, and management of the hangar are all important duties performed by the aircraft mechanic. […]

MSL is an acronym that stands for mean sea level. It is used by both aircraft pilots and drone pilots alike as one of many determinants of altitude.  However, it is not a measurement that describes the space above the ground and below the pilot. That data point is called AGL, which is short for […]

Editor’s note: The following article is not intended to be a ranking, but is only to serve as a list of possible options. As the saying goes, your mileage may vary. Throughout the country, there are hundreds of flight schools preparing pilots for rewarding careers. But only a small percentage of these are helicopter pilot […]