Features

How to pick a forced landing site so your field of dreams doesnt turn into a nightmare. Hint: Altitude matters.

Just as a pilot may see a biennial flight review as an obstacle or an opportunity, the anticipation of meeting aviation medical standards during a flight physical may cause confusion, anxiety and frustration.

The process of obtaining an FAA Airman Medical Certificate is fraught with misconceptions, suspicions, and in some cases, misinformation from pilots, pilot advocacy organizations, and even Aviation Medical Examiners themselves.

The mandated flight standards are intended to ensure a pilots fitness to fly and ultimately the safety of the airman and their passengers. Although there are occasional accounts of pilots becoming incapacitated at the controls because of hidden medical co…

After being immersed in complex airspace with rapid fire clearances and sometimes holding number fifteen for takeoff, I really look forward to flying into the mom and pop grass airstrips scattered across the countryside. Theres just something about being able to slip on final and glide into a nice landing without a controller in my ears telling me to take the next high speed exit because theres another airliner on my tail.

Ah, such fun! Back to simple stick-and-rudder once again.

Fun? Absolutely. Low risk? Not necessarily. If you rank the biggest dangers in aviation, icing and thunderstorms might appear near the top of the list. Flying into grass airstrips isnt something that caus…

Confidence is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, confidence eliminates the uncertainties that make decisions harder. On the other, confidence can lead you into believing bad things only happen to other people.

Sometimes, bad things happen to skilled people. Confidence can be a magic cloak that wards off disaster, but it can also be an inviting smell that brings misfortune in for a closer look.

On a relatively balmy November morning last year, a pilot and two members of his family said goodbye to a fourth family member. It was the Friday after Thanksgiving, and the family had been together for the holiday.

The pilot had flown his 1964 Bonanza S35 from his home in Bethesda, Md.,…

Several years ago, two active-duty Air Force pilots (one an instructor) rented a Cessna 172 in Del Rio, Texas, so they could take their dates for a flight. The two pilots sat up front with two passengers in the back seat and a heavy load of fuel in the wings. (In case youre thinking ahead, the aircraft was 323 pounds over its maximum allowable gross weight and 3.1 inches beyond its allowable aft C.G. limit.)

They took off and proceeded to perform aerobatic maneuvers at very low altitudes while also buzzing boats on the nearby lake. They performed at least one complete aileron roll, abrupt pull-ups, very abrupt level-offs at low altitude and hammerhead type turns.

The last maneuver w…

In accident reports, the NTSB may call it maneuvering flight, but most of the time it has a more colorful name: buzzing – or flat hatting to use a World War II term.

Most pilots have been guilty of it. Some dont get bitten, some learn the hard way and live to tell the story. Some find they fail the final exam. Not everyone, it appears, is as lucky as I was to survive a crash while buzzing.

The AOPA Air Safety Foundations Nall Report says buzzing in single-engine airplanes continues to be one of the largest producers of fatal accidents. Furthermore, the report says, 34.5 percent of the fatal maneuvering accidents resulted from maneuvering during low, slow flight. That remin…

One of the results of poorly assessing the risk involved with flying is reflected by the number of weather-related accidents that consistently grace NTSB logs, even in the face of widely available real-time meteorological data. A study of the accident record demonstrates that the raging debate about human versus mechanical observers largely misses the point.

Sure, human observers are superior in most respects and automated weather sometimes gives goofy and erroneous reports. On the other hand, automated weather stations allow observations from far more locations than was affordable for staffed stations. Both people and machines have strengths and weaknesses, but the more immediate point…

As pilot-in-command you are responsible for the safety of your passengers. Although commercial operations specify that passengers be given a safety briefing, Part 91 is considerably less specific. That leaves it up to the pilot to ensure passengers are thoroughly briefed – and that includes much more than telling them how to buckle the seat belt.

The briefing should begin before entering the aircraft ramp. Have a means for positive control over your guests. Teenage boy scouts playing football on a ramp are not under positive control.

You need to ensure that your guests dont endanger themselves, nor do they block or impede other aircraft operations, nor distract other operators, nor…

Go to the index of any publication devoted to flight training and try to find the word accident. Hint: Dont look between accelerated stall and adverse yaw, because you wont find it there.

This apparently dirty word is rarely used in any pilot training manual or handbook. If it does appear, it will usually be part of nebulous advice such as safety is no accident or a reference to the regulation that accidents must be reported promptly.

In fact, accident training is not required for student pilots and, for all practical purposes, none is provided. This is the primary reason why most pilots are not familiar with the circumstances and trends that comprise the general aviation a…

Put yourself in this situation, for a moment. You are cranking along on a cross-country, an IFR cross-country. For the moment you are VFR on top with a thick solid layer below. You are flying single pilot IFR with no VFR alternates within range.

Things are going along fairly smoothly, then trouble starts. The first indication on your ammeter/loadmeter goes unnoticed. You make a radio call to ATC they report as fading badly. The VOR pegs to one side of the instrument. The alternator warning light comes on. Electrical failure. That unplanned close-by VFR airfield would look pretty good about now.

ATC does notice that your transponder reply has vanished, but they cant call you. You hav…