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A few friends recently had an e-mail discussion on checklist use. It started when one said he had been working on an audiocassette checklist as an adjunct to a speedy but complete check from preflight cockpit to shutdown. The tapes were planned to have background music and a pause tone so pilots would not get ahead of themselves during taxi or takeoff.

Its hard to believe that anyone needs to have another voice in the cockpit (not to mention background music) at critical times in the flight. Its hard enough to keep your attention shifting from one important task to another without an additional distraction.

In more than 30 years as a pilot, Ive never ceased to be amazed at the…

In the tumultuous atmosphere of an aircraft carrier, some of the worlds best pilots routinely embark on some of the most dangerous flying there is. Military aviation, especially carrier operations, demands disciplined pilots, well-maintained machines and a hard-headed look at the risk involved in every flight.

Even though most civilian pilots will never experience the critical flying demands that a fighter pilot takes in stride, the stakes are just as high. A wrecked airplane is still a wrecked airplane, and a dead pilot is still a dead pilot.

Over the years the military has learned a lot of things about flying, airplanes and risk assessment by losing a lot of blood, people and airp…

A fairly new private pilot recently mentioned that hes read about stalls occurring while turning from base to final but doesnt remember hearing much discussion about it during his private pilot training.

The pilot had done all the approach-to-stall, stall recognition and stall recovery training required to perform the tasks required by his certificate. However, he had no idea why he was doing them – other than to pass the checkride – nor how he might apply this training in the real world.

The central concept never presented to him is that the main reason for stall training, including the spin discussions (which replace the mandatory spin training of the old hairy-chested days), is…

If youre like most pilots, you carry a touch of power into the flare, then pull it off as the airplane settles to the ground. Powered approaches are routinely safer than power-off approaches. Pilot judgment is less stressed, and a little power can make up for a lot of mistakes in the pattern.

Think about how long its been since youve done a power-off landing. In a way, its a shame. The skills they help develop are useful in other ways, such as an engine-out landing. Volumes have been written on forced landings, crash landings, flameouts, engine-out landings, off-airport landings and a host of other colorfully termed dead-engine landing scenarios. Every pilot should have his or her ow…

At the end of July every summer, thousands of pilots hear the sirens song luring them to Oshkosh. For many, the trip involves a long flight in a sport plane seldom flown cross-country. For a few, the challenge is too much.

Pilots who ignore the pilgrimage to aviations Mecca are not immune. Family vacations and the desire to explore tap into the quality that airplanes do best: long trips.

Long trips have many advantages over short ones. You can climb higher, get above the thermals and into cooler, smoother air. The airplane consumes less fuel in the thinner air and goes faster. You may be able to catch a favorable tailwind and whisk along over the countryside watching the GPS or DME c…

Confront a pilot with a statement like, You pilots are a smug bunch and you probably wont get much argument. Truth is, ego is part of the game.

As the pages in the logbook accumulate, the feelings of been there, done that grow too. Not quickly, perhaps, but insidiously. The eye of experience heralds the look of confidence.

While experience sometimes leads to complacency, most pilots take their responsibility seriously – even enjoy it and the ongoing training and quest for proficiency that comes with the pilot certificate. Conscientiousness may be admirable, but sadly it sometimes is not enough. Mistakes do happen, and sometimes they happen at the worst possible time.

The owner…

Very seldom does instrument training adequately prepare a pilot for flying in actual weather. While an instrument rating gives you the ability to fly in the clouds, the wisdom of knowing what to avoid is more difficult to earn. One weather situation that seldom comes up during training but that greatly increases the risk for the pilot is heavy rain.

The biggest risks of flying in heavy rain are the associated windshears, downdrafts and visual illusions. The problem can be particularly difficult during approach, where you have limited ability to divert unless you abandon the approach entirely.

Heavy rain showers, especially close to decision height, can be very distracting and furthe…

Everyone knows that where theres smoke, theres fire. When most people think about smoke and fire in aviation, three things come to mind: engine fire, electrical fire, crash site. There is, however, another form of smoke that certainly demands respect, and thats the smoke created by wildfires.

Wildfires both large and small create a number of special hazards to general aviation that must be treated with caution. Though wildfires are most common in the western U.S., urban residents of Long Island, Florida, Malibu and Oakland have experienced the powerful ravage of wildfires recently in this decade. The power of wildfire and its hazards to aviators throughout the country should not be…

Light twin flying and rattlesnake encounters start without much drama, certainly, but with carelessness and a casual attitude about the possible end results. Theyre rigged against untrained and unwary people, however, and the results are often the same.

Twin-engine airplanes demand a healthy respect from those who fly them. Some of that must come from the improved performance when everything is working right, and some must come from the slim margins for error that exist when something goes wrong.

Once upon a time, back in 1979, things were booming in general aviation circles. Sales of light piston twins had been increasing by leaps and bounds for a decade. The popular reasoning of the…

The new private pilot was on fourth flight with passengers in a Cessna 172. In his first landing attempt he was long and went around. During the process the airplane was observed performing strangely.

On the second attempt the pilot again landed long and again attempted to go-around. He added full power but did not retract the flaps from fully extended, whereupon the aircraft pitched up, stalled and crashed.

The two long landings were bad enough, implying both inadequate training and substandard proficiency, but the problem had even deeper roots. The NTSB investigator found only two entries in the pilots logbook regarding go-around training. Both were pre-solo. The pilot also had n…