Airmanship

Sugarloaf Mountain is a popular visual checkpoint for pilots here in central Maryland where Im based, but with its peak rising just 800 feet above mostly flat farmland it barely qualifies as a mountain. After a recent tour of the Southwest in my flying clubs Cessna 182RG, I have a new appreciation for really big mountains, density altitude and the tricks they can play with our little airplanes.Also from that trip comes a tale of how a group of flatland pilots from the East coast did the planning, the navigation, the weather-checking and the aviating over unfamiliar territory and lived to do it again. Its also a primer on how even low-time pilots flying basic, non-turbocharged airplanes can, with a little planning and lots of flexibility, tackle these and other challenges without becoming a statistic.

To succeed in aviation, we develop the athletes ability to live in the present moment, at times exercising every last ounce of skill, discipline and judgment-wisdom, if you will. Well, were at least cognizant of whats around us, even while were reaching back in our minds for the knowledge we have acquired at an earlier time.Although there is very little athletics in the serenity of cruise flight, throw in one or more of any number of challenges and, sooner or later, we all meet The Wall. It might not be quite as exhausting as when your leg muscles go anaerobic during too long of a run, but its just as real a limitation.

The number of our landings must always equal our takeoffs, or so goes the old adage. But sometimes the safest way to ensure equality is to do neither. Unlike birds possessing the gift of flight and whose skills are instinctive, we have the hard-won gift of thought. We earn our skills through repetition and reason.

One of the reasons we fly airplanes is to go fast. I confess: Theres a certain satisfaction from pushing the airplane hard, up into its yellow arc. If youre lucky, you fly something capable of such speeds without much effort, even in the summer or at high altitude, when the air is thinner and indicated airspeeds lower.

A good landing comes from a good approach. Its hard to make a good landing from a bad approach. Ive heard both these axioms many times during my ongoing quest for the perfect flight (and have repeated them often to my students) because for the most part its true. A good, and more importantly safe, arrival depends on the process we use to get there

Mountainous terrain offers great scenery but recent accidents illustrate it can be treacherous for the unwary. Heres what to look for and how to avoid it.

Glider pilots learn energy management as a matter of survival and usually make it back to a runway. Whats their secret?

Flying is an art, with a little bit of science thrown in. But that science doesnt have to be intimidating if we apply a few rules of thumb.

Cockpit organization is an art, not a science, and no number of gadgets, reminders or kneeboards will help the pilot who isnt thinking ahead.

If you believe the hype, thousands of very light jets are right around the corner. What will it take for pilots without jet experience to safely fly them?