Aviation Safety

Beech 58 Baron Nose Gear Switch Out Of Adjustment During landing approach, the nose gear light flickered. Pilot recycled gear and received three-green, gear-down-and-locked indication, landing without incident. Maintenance found the nose gear down-and-locked indicator switch out of adjustment. Adjusted switch. Performed multiple landing gear retractions without a failure. Part total time: Unknown Beechcraft B300 […]

August 2, 2021, Amado, Ariz. Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee 140 At about 0925 Mountain time, the airplane was substantially damaged during a forced landing following engine failure. The pilot and pilot-rated passenger were not injured. Visual conditions prevailed. While in cruise, the airplane engine developed a sudden and severe vibration, then quit altogether. The pilot initiated […]

The typical personal airplane lacks many creature comforts we’ve come to expect in private transportation. Perhaps foremost among them is air conditioning, but the cabin heat systems also can leave a lot to be desired, especially among piston singles. The primary reason is that the vast majority of these airplanes employ air-cooled engines, unlike the […]

When a federal appeals court in April ruled, in part, that flight instruction constitutes carriage of a person for compensation, it perhaps unwittingly created a storm of uncertainty in the U.S. flight training community and those operating aircraft in the three categories primarily affected: limited, experimental and primary. As we noted in June’s issue, the […]

One thing all pilots feel at some point on any flight is a sense of pressure. On a good-day local flight, it could be something as simple and routine as wanting to make an “are-we-down-yet-smooth” landing to impress someone. At the other extreme might be a boss who absolutely, positively needs to be at a […]

My first flight instructor’s words from decades ago are stuck with me: “Glide, grass, gas,” he said, and then repeated it. “Glide, grass, gas.” He was talking about engine failures, and these three little words are a nice mental checklist for what to do when the engine of a single-engine airplane stops. Glide: Fly at […]

My previous article (“Off-Field Landings,” October 2021) discussed how to minimize the risks when a worst-case scenario becomes real. Doing what you can to prevent an off-field landing remains Job One, but sometimes things don’t work out. All of a sudden, you’re on the ground, the airplane is broken and you can’t get a cell […]

Instrument-rated pilots are familiar with visual approaches, which allow them to fly to and land at an airport in good weather without executing what might be a time- and fuel-consuming published procedure. Air traffic control also recognizes other visual clearances, which can allow pilots to shortcut one or another procedure that might otherwise increase risk […]

My old, long-gone flight instructor was maniacal about prop inspection (“Preflighting Propellers,” August 2020). Here in Boston, when we conducted preflight in the dead of winter, he would rotate the prop with a peculiar hand and foot arrangement that was “proper” in case of starting. Keys were always on top of the dash so we […]

Since the airplane I fly most of the time is the Beech Debonair I own, rather than a series of rentals or club airplanes, it’s easy to forget some of the quirks others may or may not have in comparison. There are evident differences among various personal airplanes: high- and low-wing configurations, glass and round-dial […]