Pia Bergqvist

Flying into the Los Angeles area at night presents the pilot and passengers with an aerial view of millions of homes, cars and billboards lighting up the ground. If you haven’t had an opportunity to experience the flight in person, this video takes you on the Sadde Six Arrival over Thousand Oaks, Malibu, Santa Monica, […]

Winter is rapidly approaching, bringing with it more challenging flying conditions. According to the AOPA Air Safety Institute’s annual Nall Report, one factor that causes about a quarter of weather-related accidents is ice. While you are not immune to icing conditions in the summer, you will more likely encounter this phenomenon in the winter. As […]

German manufacturer Beyerdynamic recently introduced the HS 800 Digital aviation headset. A modern-looking headset with a carbon-fiberlike design, the HS 800 definitely has the look. I recently took it for a test flight to see how it performs in the cockpit. The HS 800 Digital is nice and light, only 0.72 pounds (without the cable […]

(November 2011) Alaska is a state with a few hundred runways, about 13,000 roads and more than 3 million lakes. With so many options for landing sites, it is no wonder that Alaskan summer skies are filled with all kinds of aerial watercraft with pilots on their way to visit neighbors, load up on groceries, […]

Oxygen use is one of many factors in aviation where it’s a good idea to set your own limits, which should also be much lower than those required by the FAA. Legal requirements for oxygen aren’t applicable until you fly above 12,500 feet, but in some cases you may want to start inhaling supplemental oxygen […]

Union strikes and bad weather made this weekend miserable for the airlines and their travelers with nearly 1,800 canceled flights within, into or out of the United States, according to FlightAware. A large number of the cancellations were Qantas Airways flights as union strikes grounded the airline’s entire fleet. By Monday, Fair Work Australia – […]

What weather limits should an instructor set for a student to fly solo? Jeff Edwards has been a flight instructor since 1982 and is a former FAA-designated pilot examiner. He has been a six-time designated Master Certificated Flight Instructor. In 2003, Jeff was selected as the National Flight Instructor of the Year. Jeff has more […]

Flight training providers offering FAA-approved Flight Instructor Refresher Course (FIRC) programs will need to make modifications to their courses as a result of a recently updated advisory circular (AC 61-83G). The new 33-page AC includes modified guidelines on how to develop training course outlines (TCO) and updates some of the core topics that must be […]

NBAA reported this week that the TSA is expected to release a new proposed security program for business aviation airplanes. The new proposal is expected to be significantly different from the large aircraft security program (LASP), which was proposed in 2008 and highly criticized by federal, state and local government officials as well as general […]

Sikorsky’s S-76D has moved one step closer to certification after Pratt & Whitney’s PW210S engine that powers the helicopter received Transport Canada certification. More than 8,700 hours of testing were conducted to complete the certification. But the testing will continue to finish FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency validations, which are expected within the next […]