Commentary

Industry sales of new general aviation aircraft are up over last year and the accident rates are down.

As this issue of the magazine headed off to the printer in late January, the furor over the impact on radar altimeters from rolling out 5G cellular service throughout the U.S. seemed to have died down. The FAA issued hundreds of Notams and two blanket ADs covering rotorcraft plus transport and commuter category airplanes making […]

I read your article, “Polishing Your Scan: Our Top Five Tips” (December 2021), twice. As always, it was well-written and thoughtful. I have to say my experience with view-limiting devices seems to be the opposite of that suggested in the article. Compared to flying with a view-limiting device, I find it easier to maintain precise parameters […]

I enjoyed your article “VFR on an IFR Clearance” in the November 2021 issue. I owned and operated a King Air E90 for about 15 years and frequently flew into Watsonville Municipal (KWVI) near Monterey, California. Unless it was a short hop, I almost always flew on a full IFR flight plan and was almost always […]

I made another long cross-country in October, of about the same length as the one I documented in September’s issue (“If X, Then Y”). This one didn’t feature airport fuel farms with no 100LL, or a thunderstorm right over my destination when I wanted to use it, however. In fact, after delaying my planned departure for […]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article “Fixing Your Float” in the September 2020 issue. As you accurately point out, the “desired airspeed” over the numbers is not always in keeping with the numbers published by the airplane manufacturers. As is mentioned, the optimal approach airspeed varies with airplane design and weight. Yet another variable affecting stall […]

May’s article, “Defensive Flying,” was well-done and long overdue. It brought back vivid memories for most of us who have been in the air for awhile, me in particular. As a VFR-only aviator, I would have appreciated more emphasis on en route transitions, especially when one takes it for granted that they are all alone.  […]

I love flying and, like many of you reading this, I enjoy sharing it with others. I regularly invite family or friends for a flight. For all but one of these flights, things have gone well. I can’t fully describe how vivid the lesson I learned was for the one flight that went awry. Picture this: […]

We’ve been victimized by both types of wake turbulence you described in your article (“Wake Turbulence,” February 2020). Some years ago we were on a left downwind for Runway 16L at Van Nuys, Calif., at 1000 feet agl. Without warning, our heads were slammed into the cockpit ceiling. Then, nothing. I looked up and around […]

I’d like to add one more suggestion to Thomas Turner’s article on “Handling In-Close Approach Changes” (January 2020). Using ForeFlight on a tablet, I have found the pilot can switch from one approach plate to another in literally a couple of seconds rather than the several minutes it takes to thumb through a booklet looking […]