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If you’re on a path to becoming a career pilot, you’re also probably enrolled in a program offering instrument training. You’ll do it their way if you want to graduate. The rest of us face many more variables, and how we respond to them can impact every aspect of how and whether we earn the […]

The instrument student/instrument instructor relationship works both ways, and the student has duties as well:

As long-time readers know, weve been following developments on industry attempts to deregulate the FAAs airman medical certification process. Happily, on December 15, 2015, the full U.S. Senate passed its version of the underlying measure, the Pilots Bill of Rights 2 (PBOR2), by unanimous voice vote. The bill, S. 571, now goes to the U.S. House of Representatives, where its immediate future is uncertain at this writing. The Senates vote to pass PBOR2 comes on the heels of literally years of work by industry organizations, individuals and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the bills sponsor, to deregulate, or reform if you prefer, circumstances under which an FAA medical certificate is required for pilots commanding personal aircraft. The PBOR2 legislation builds on more than 10 years of experience with the FAAs sport pilot certification, which merely requires a state-issued drivers license as proof of fitness to fly. The Senate-passed version may actually require pilots to spend more time with their personal physician, reviewing their fitness to fly than before. The sidebar on the opposite page summarizes the bills provisions.

Fatal accidents involving experimental, amateur-built aircraft (EABs) during the 2015 federal fiscal year-October 2014 through September 2015-fell 20 percent from the previous 12-month period. The FAA has published for public comment draft revisions to two ACs, as well as a handful of others useful to GA and other operators. The FAAs efforts to approve a new, unleaded aviation gasoline are continuing, with an ongoing series of lab tests being conducted at the agencys Atlantic City, N.J., research facility.

This magazine often has discussed the so-called impossible turn: returning to the departure runway and landing downwind after an engine failure during takeoff. Our view of the impossible turn is that it is possible, but only with practice, sufficient altitude and some luck. Generally, executing a forced landing straight ahead is preferable to attempting a steeply banked turn at low altitude. This is especially true without engine power or sufficient airspeed above the wings stalling angle of attack to enable the steep turn.

The days mission was to coach a friend of mine through his three bangs-and-goes using another friends Cessna 172. Although he had little time, if any, in Cessnas, he was in the left seat. I was serving as PIC from the right. Shortly after we secured the cabin and ran the before-start checklist, the mighty 160-hp Lycoming was happily purring away. We were getting ready to call for a taxi clearance when the engine stopped. No cough, no protest, no warning. What did you do? I asked. Nothing, the bang-and-go candidate responded. So we ran the checklist again. When we came to the floor-mounted fuel selector, I asked, How did the fuel selector get turned off? He said, Its not; I turned it to both before starting the engine and havent touched it since. Houston, we found the problem.

According to the FAA, accidents and incidents have occurred due to a lack of communication or misunderstanding as to who actually had control of the aircraft. This is particularly a problem between students and flight instructors, but affects all flight operations when two or more people have access to the flight controls. Without clearly delineating […]

Ice, snow or frost adhering to our wings and other control surfaces add weight and drag, and can change way air flows over and around the airframe, making an otherwise clean air flow dirty. How dirty? Lets drill down a little bit into the underlying aerodynamics of airframe contamination for a better understanding of what the difference between a clean and contaminated airplane can mean.

Stop us if youve heard this before: [IMGCAP(1)] This or similar statements appear in training manuals, articles, presentations and even in the FAAs bank of written-test questions. Its said so often that the original source is obscure. I tracked an early reference back to a 1982 FAA Advisory Circular, AC 20-117, Hazards Following Ground Deicing and Ground Operations in Conditions Conducive to Icing, which references regulations established by the Civil Aeronautics Board in 1950. While I hunted…

Its not much of a stretch to say that in-cockpit traffic detection technology has never been more prevalent or popular than it is today. From the Boeings and Airbuses required to have a certified TCAS aboard, to the guy or gal banging around in a Cub on a lazy summer afternoon and using the traffic information from ADS-B, its likely some kind of in-cockpit traffic detection technology is available. Theres only one real problem with all of these technologies: theres no way they detect all potential traffic, although some see a more complete traffic picture than others. From that one problem, however, flow two others. The first is the false sense of security even a top-of-the-line system can provide. The second is the extra workload-and especially the additional head-down time-to which pilots are susceptible as they watch the traffic display and not the sky outside the aircraft. But even the best traffic detection and alerting system wont see an aircraft without a transponder, and the traffic information provided via ADS-B has its own set of considerations, which are summarized in the sidebar on the opposite page. Lets take a look at why all this is true.