Tom Benenson

The New York State legislature insists it has taken a major step to ensure its citizens are safe from terrorist attacks. But it’s a misstep. Alerted to the passage of Assembly Bill 2122, which would make background checks mandatory for anyone wanting to take flight lessons in New York State, I contacted Governor Pataki’s office […]

The first time I flew solo on an instrument flight in actual instrument conditions was the day I flew from Morristown to Teterboro, New Jersey, to take the check ride with an FAA examiner to add the instrument rating to my instructor certificate to make me a CFII. I sufficiently impressed the examiner to add […]

Major concerns for anyone planning single- pilot operations with a jet airplane are first the availability and cost of insurance, and then what limitations are going to be placed on the pilot and the use of the airplane. The issues the insurance companies have are first that the pilot applicant doesn’t have the requisite experience […]

The private pilot’s certificate is a magic door that opens to the fantastic world of flight. And for many pilots, the sheer pleasure of recreational flying is sufficient. But others soon bridle at the limitations of VFR-only operations when they realize many flights have to be cancelled or delayed because of weather. Often that weather […]

Every long journey begins with a single step. Once you’ve decided to go ahead and learn to fly-something you may have been dreaming about for years-and selected a flight school and an instructor, you’ve set out on the first leg of a satisfying lifelong journey. You’ve committed your time and money to achieve your goal, […]

__For many of us, going places is one of the wonders of flying. Many instructors like to take potential flight students on a short cross-country flight during the initial introductory flight in order to whet their appetite for the reward that awaits after they complete their primary training. Getting kicked out of the pattern is […]

I have been studying general aviation accidents for almost 50 years and it is amazing that over all this period of time we have lost eight, plus or minus a few, IFR airplanes to thunderstorms each year. It’s amazing because when I started there was little or no radar information on thunderstorms available, where now […]

My Dad, a renowned research doctor, used to argue that the human gene pool has reached its zenith and is on the decline. He’d cite the recent efforts at promoting intelligent design, ignoring global warming, preventing stem-cell research and the disavowal of science in general. Maybe I’m a pessimist, but I’m beginning to wonder if […]

Looking through the aviation catalogs you can quickly be overwhelmed by the choices of pilot equipment and gear. In Sporty’s Pilot Shop catalog, for example, there are two pages of logbook options and half a page of logbook covers and cases. What’s a pilot to do? When I first started taking flying lessons, I gobbled […]