Pia Bergqvist

As I have reported before, the City of Santa Monica is going through a three-step airport community process, also called the visioning process, to help determine what the future holds for the Santa Monica Airport (SMO). Phase II of the process, in which community members were given an opportunity to put in their vision for […]

It’s never too late to make changes to prevent diseases that may end your flying career. And becoming healthier doesn’t mean you have to make major changes. Here are some tips on what you can do today to keep yourself in the air for years to come. 1. Take the stairs instead of riding the […]

How can students recover and learn from lessons that don’t go well? **Dorothy Schick **is the owner of TakeWing, a Cessna Pilot Center located at Creswell Airport (77S) in Oregon. A CFI with 2,800 hours of flight instruction given, she is a member of SAFE (Society of Aviation and Flight Educators) and a FAASTeam representative. […]

The MultiSump+ Fuel Tester can enhance the messy and potentially expensive but very important preflight task of sumping fuel. The fuel sampler separates the impurities from the fuel sample so that only clean fuel is returned to the fuel tanks. Like most fuel testers, the Multi-Sump+ has a stainless-steel rod that you push into the […]

Every two years, whether you’re current or not, you have to complete a biennial flight review with an instructor. The BFR is not a test – there is no such thing as a pass or fail. Your instructor simply needs to feel confident that you’re a competent pilot before endorsing your logbook. But rather than […]

Airplane crashes are generally unplanned tragic events that we all do our best to avoid. But this weekend, a 170-seat Boeing 727 was deliberately crashed in the remote Sonoran Desert in Baja California, Mexico, all in the name of science. “This groundbreaking project features an actual crash of a passenger jet and explores the big […]

Extended physical stagnation is not good for your body. It restricts blood flow and can lead to clots. Fortunately, you can take action and create circulation in your body, even while flying on long cross-country flights when you can’t get up and walk around. The following exercises can easily be performed while you’re seated, but […]

If you’re fortunate enough to live a long life, you may reach a point when you start to wonder whether it’s time to retire as pilot in command. You may feel that your vision or mental status isn’t up to par, or you may begin to have trouble entering or exiting the airplane. The point […]

Good habit patterns are the best indications of a good pilot. It’s easy to get lazy when flying non-complex airplanes that don’t require a lot of action on the behalf of the pilot. But if you don’t continue practicing your ingrained habits while flying airplanes that are “easy” to fly, you’ll be sorry once you […]

Matevž Lenarčič emerged smiling as he exited the Pipistrel Virus SW 914 Turbo last week after completing the GreenLight WorldFlight journey, which started and ended at the Jože Pučnik airport in Brnik outside Ljubljana, Slovenia. The flight, which began on January 8, was not an attempt to circumvent the globe in record time, but rather […]