Learning Experiences

A student of mine was one week from taking (and passing) his private check ride in a Cessna 152. He was doing solo practice at a nearby uncontrolled airport. On one circuit, he reported turning from crosswind to downwind for runway 32 when a Malibu announced it was on a right 45 to enter the downwind for the same runway.

The student spotted the Malibu, told the other pilot he had them in sight, and said he would follow the faster Malibu. The Malibu pilot acknowledged and entered a wide downwind leg. An airplane on base for the same runway announced it was on base.

Just before the airplane on base turned final, the Malibu turned base and then quickly turned final. The other airplane on…

Up until last week, I was one of the most anti-cell phone pilots around. I always thought cell phones were worthless because the reception was never consistent. It seemed as though the more cell phones and pagers a person had, the more difficult it was to reach them. More importantly, cellular phone use in flight has always been a no-no. Last week, I was in a situation that completely changed my mind.

I was flying some people to Philadelphia International Airport in their Piper Chieftain. Everything about the flight was going as planned; it was a sunny VFR day, the previous legs of the trip had gone flawlessly and air traffic was at a minimum. A few miles from the airport, my co-pilot…

It was probably the most embarrassing experience I ever had as a CFI, and a good lesson I learned.

I had just sold my 1980 B55 Baron to a real pilot. He was an 8,000-hour, on-call charter pilot, current in G3s, G4s, Citations and Lears who wanted his own toy. Part of the deal, however, was that I had to teach him how to fly the Baron.

Is he kidding me, I wondered? My 1,500 hours are confined to this Baron, a Duchess and a smattering of hours in small Cessnas and Pipers. What could I possibly teach him? So, I laughed when he made that part of the deal and said, Sure, but you know more about flying than Ill ever know. Perhaps, he answered. I could teach you to fly the G4, but y…

Undoubtedly the worst moment in my flying career so far was the day I ran out of fuel and wrote off a perfectly good airplane through my own stupidity. Ill never forget it.

They say accidents result from a chain of small, seemingly insignificant events that eventually add up. In my case, the first link in the chain was an absence of paperwork. I was flying a light twin in which it was not possible to dip the tanks, so we had to rely on fuel consumption records, with the fuel gauges as backups.

On that particular day, the fuel records were missing, so I had to rely solely on the fuel gauges. This didnt worry me too much; Id been flying this plane for some time and knew the gauges w…

I have been a flight instructor for a few years at Orange County Airport in Montgomery, N.Y. During that time, its become crystal clear why pilots should be extra careful when flying into uncontrolled airports.

Some pilots neglect to use current charts, ignore the Airport/Facility Directory, and dont bother to check Notams before flying to another airport. Here are some perfect examples of what I am talking about.

In January 2001, Orange County Airport started to use a new CTAF because of radio congestion with other uncontrolled airports in the area. We all thought this would be great.

I quickly changed my mind the first time I had an aircraft starting to flare at the same time…

I figured, what can be so hard about an IPC? I had 30 hours of hard IMC flight in the past 180 days and 34 approaches. I didnt even need the check ride to stay legal – all I was missing was a hold. However, good sense says that a semiannual check is a good idea, even if you dont technically need it.

I made a date with my local DPE and occasional instructor. I told him I wanted an informal but demanding couple of hours, doing things that I wouldnt normally do. The morning dawned with low IMC but VFR conditions were forecast for the afternoon when we were meeting. As a precaution, I filed IFR sequentially to two local airports, and then back home.

Ah, youve filed – we might as well…

The year was 1998 and it had been 14 years since I had last been in an airplane as a pilot. When I stopped flying in 1984, I held commercial, multiengine and instrument ratings and had approximately 1,000 hours of flying rented complex singles and light twins.

The time was finally right to get back into flying. After I got a medical certificate, I signed up for flight instruction from a highly qualified, mature CFI. The flying came back quickly, but the communications and instrument proficiency required more effort. Putting them all together was both frustrating and more demanding than Id anticipated.

After more than 50 hours of instruction, I convinced myself I could do it. The ne…

I learned some lessons recently about what it really means to be pilot-in-command, crew resource management, takeoff planning and personal minimums. I hold a commercial helicopter rating with private ASEL privileges and an instrument rating (obtained seven months ago). Total time is about 230 hours, with eight hours in actual IMC.

It was a typical winter day in the South, 48 degrees with a forecast of 1800 overcast, with temporary periods of 400-800 broken. It seemed like a good day to schedule some dual in actual IMC to maintain my IFR currency. Arriving at the airport, the temporary lower ceilings seemed a little more persistent than the forecast would indicate. On the non-precision…

I flew from Ft. Worth to Denver shortly after getting my instrument ticket late last year and picked up more ice than I ever care to have on my aircraft again. Even with the prop heated on my Mooney 252, it was still shaking and shedding ice, signaling to me that it was time (a.k.a. past time) to descend to lose some ice. I remained over flat terrain in west Texas and eastern Colorado and managed to learn a lot about ice build-up and its impact on aircraft performance.

The guys on the glycol truck in Denver said theyd never seen so much ice on a small plane before – and I hope I never do again. Given the temperatures in Denver at the time, the ice remained in descent and even after sitti…

I never should have learned this lesson because I never should have made the flight. Mother Nature decided to demonstrate several of her most unnerving weather phenomena.

We were planning a flight from Los Alamos, N.M., to Amana, Iowa, for a weekend fly-in. We expected wind over the entire area of the flight for most of the planned weekend. Because of the length of the flight, we planned to leave Thursday so as to be rested when the festivities began.

The Los Alamos airport is at an elevation of 7,150 feet and is a one way airport. Takeoff is to the east and landing to the west, regardless of wind. As we drove to the airport from about 30 miles west of Los Alamos, the wind was causin…