Editor’s Log

Whats the point of good stick and rudder skills if you make decisions that will lead to grief?

FAA cant measure the success of its efforts on safety without a reliable measure of flying

FAA cant measure the success of its efforts on safety without a reliable measure of flying

Perfect day for flying leads to complacent attitude and some not-so-perfect actions

When one pilot goofs, a mistake can cascade through the whole pattern

There are two or three days every month that I have come to dread. For it is on these days that I compile and review the NTSBs reports of aviation accidents for the previous month.

It is morbid. It is depressing. It puts me in a foul mood. My family hates these days just as much.

Over the years Ive followed this routine, I have become jaded and insensitive. I call people idiots – and worse – for transgressions such as pushing a long landing instead of going around, and winding up in the trees. Somehow, I would hope to have more compassion.

Perhaps what bothers me the most is that the record offers incontrovertible proof that this flying thing can be a risky venture. Few people pla…

Recently I was in the flight planning room at an FBO in Knoxville, on the phone with Flight Service to file an IFR flight plan to Orlando. The weather in the southeast was just lousy with thunderstorms.

The weather radar showed a clear corridor down the center of Georgia if we left now. I had briefed the weather on the computer but had called FSS to file the flight plan.

When I told the briefer I wanted to file, he was nothing short of indignant. Hadnt I looked at the weather? Did I know about the hazardous weather? His tone made his real question crystal clear: Do you know how stupid you are for planning to fly a light aircraft through there on a day like this?

Well, Im pretty s…

When the proud owners too proud, it may be time for someone else to check things out

When I arrived at the airport, the line crew had taken the airplane out of the gang hangar in Smyrna, Tenn., leaving it on the ramp in front of the hangar door. Due to a slight slope in the ramp, there was a chock in front of the nosewheel; otherwise, the airplane was unsecured.

As I did the preflight inspection, I noted the chock and also the fact that the airplane would roll downhill if it were removed. I deferred that until we were packed up to go.

Preflight completed, I loaded the bags into the back of the Mooney and waited for my three passengers to emerge from the facilities. Finally, toddler and infant were secure in their car seats in the back of the airplane and my wife and I…

The arrival of spring heralds an important change in the attitudes of pilots. No, were not talking about the sudden and uncontrollable urge to wax wings and fuselage, but the start of airshow season.

Airshows are great. You can gawk at airplanes youll never be able to afford. Check out some youd never be allowed to fly. Watch pilots demonstrate things that in any other context would only be described as foolish.

Yet for all their wonder, airshows often hold an attribute most attendees routinely ignore: education.

A pilgrimage to Sun n Fun this month or AirVenture this summer cannot be considered complete unless you check out the wide variety of seminars and presentations put on…