Features

The checks in the mail.

Your airplane will be ready Tuesday.

Im from the FAA and Im here to help you!

Three of the Great Lies – but with the last, you actually have some control over what happens. If your encounter with the FAA involves a ramp check, there are several things you can do to protect yourself, including knowing what an inspector may and may not do, that may help it it go easier.

Getting ramp checked is one of the great fears of all pilots. Even the average, law-abiding pilot has a gut-level dread that no matter how righteous his intentions, the FAA inspector will find something wrong with either the pilot or the plane. Many fear that they will either get tem…

It was almost sunset when I came out to the field. I needed to pick up my Jepps that I had left in the airplane. I came out the side of the hangar, facing the runways. It was then that I noticed the Beech Travelair sitting like a duck, bedded down for the night, landing gear neatly recessed into the wheel wells. Gear-up on our least-used runway.

There were red caution strobes all around the Travelair, so incoming traffic (rare at night) would see the bird. I picked up my flashlight and went out for a look. Streaks of oil, rubber and metal trailed out behind the twin. A classic gear-up, but why? I put on my sleuth hat and looked around. People, parts, position and paper – the classic ai…

One clear, smooth night about 35 years ago, I was flying a load of passengers over Virginias Blue Ridge Mountains enroute from Dayton, Ohio, Washington, D.C. Suddenly, the Convair started losing altitude – big time. The airspeed dropped 60 knots in what seemed like just a couple of seconds.

I jammed the throttles as far forward as I could get them, heard the throaty roar of the two Pratt & Whitney engines as they ramped up to full power – but absolutely nothing happened.

I didnt know it at the time, but the combination of winds and jagged terrain below were teaching me my first lesson about mountain flying.

Just as suddenly as it began, the airplane stopped descending and righted…

Although pilots do their best to minimize the risk they assume every time they switch on the magnetos, somewhere in the back of most pilots heads is a tiny voice urging them to watch out for the unexpected. Some may consider this self-doubt and banish it from their consciousness. Others embark on a near-manic attempt to silence it through endless training, hardware and conservative decision-making.

Though most pilots generally fall somewhere in the middle, there are those occasional flights where almost anyone may be tempted to shout down the doubt or defer the flight because something doesnt feel right. Usually those flights pass without incident. Occasionally they dont.

The voic…

Among pilots, the perception of whats safe is forever clouded by the tree-falling-in-the-woods syndrome. If no ones there to hear it, does it still make a thud?

The aviation safety corollary has to be the accident stats numbers game. When a trend seems to surface, was it there all along or are we just noticing it because we happened to be looking?

Such may very well be the case with the FAAs current safety problem child – runway incursions. According to data collected by the agency, runway incursions are at an all-time high and rising.

Worse, most of them are committed by general aviation pilots, giving the impression that the average Bonanza or Piper owner is bumbling around…

One of the most fatal types of accidents in general aviation is structural failure, in which the chance of death is nearly 100 percent.

Luckily, wings dont come off aircraft very often. But when it happens, it will be catastrophic and probably unsurvivable. Im shocked while listening to some flight instructors who quietly advertise that they would teach aerobatics regardless of the aircrafts certification, citing that the aircraft had a safety margin so it wasnt a big deal.

It is a big deal. In fact, theres a rental/training aircraft at a nearby flight school that is so bent that it wont fly straight and level, and students regularly complain that its stall is so unpredictabl…

Bewildered, I began filling out a Notice Of Disapproval – the proverbial pink slip – for a commercial pilot applicant. Up to the point of the final landing for the flight test it had been a picture perfect checkride. The applicant had performed all the maneuvers, including the go-around, quite well. His smoothness, accuracy and judgment were to be applauded. Surprisingly, it was the second performance of the go-around maneuver of the day that caused the unsatisfactory performance.

We were operating out of a non-towered airport the day of the test. While on short final for a landing, another airplane – with a flight instructor on board – pulled out onto the runway in front of us. We were…

My first and only accident is a good example of how psychological factors affect piloting decisions. I was 17, inexperienced and anxious to try out a new set of wings. I had little money, so my primary radio was a used unit of doubtful reliability. In fact, it had malfunctioned on the ground several times, and I was unsure how it would do in the air.

Everything worked well until I got into a steep turn. In most planes, a radio malfunction will not lead directly to a crash. But in a radio-controlled model aircraft, you can guess the result.

Despite what you might think, the cause of this crash was not faulty equipment – it was pilot error. I made a bad decision to fly with deficient e…

While you are scanning your flight instruments closely, over in some other corner of the panel are some other instruments that are worth more than a glance, IFR or VFR: the engine performance instruments.

If you dont include them in your scan, you cant really tell if your aircraft engine is in good health. Theyll help you decide when to draw the line and say that the engine is not safe enough to continue on the flight. It may be running now, but your instruments may help you determine how long it will continue to run as advertised.

There are symptoms of failing engine health that an aware pilot should recognize. In some cases they may pinpoint a problem before it becomes trouble. I…

A private pilot with about 250 hours flew his personal airplane from an airport in the Southeast to a coastal resort in southern Alabama with his boss in the right seat. The two were going to a business conference, as evidenced by the two sets of golf bags in the back of the high performance single.

The meetings were productive and the networking effective. As for the golf, well, it was probably as frustrating as golf usually is. Once the round was concluded, the pair hopped into a taxi for a quick jaunt to the airport and the three-hour leg home.

When the pilot had originally planned the trip, the schedule called for a 1 p.m. round of golf, and he figured on a departure around 5:30. I…