Aviation Safety

A common problem students and rusty pilots may have with their landings involves floating down the runway, waiting for the airplane to quit flying. We’re often tempted to force it onto the runway, which can result in all kinds of mischief, including landing on the nosewheel of a tricycle-gear airplane. That’s bad, since the nosewheel […]

My present career as an air traffic controller started in 2008, when I took my first tower tour. I had earned my private pilot certificate earlier that year and wanted to meet the faces behind the voices I kept hearing. The two gentlemen I met had lengthy careers in the FAA, which included Flight Service […]

Most of us spend our time aloft droning along in straight-and-level flight. For the typical pilot, turns are reserved for the traffic pattern or flying an approach, and occasionally for entering a holding pattern or performing a course reversal. And we rarely exceed 30 degrees of bank. On one hand, that’s okay, since our relative […]

The first Airman Certification Standards (ACS) were issued in 2016, after a five-year gestation period, replacing the Practical Test Standards (PTS) system that previously governed checkrides for airman certificates and ratings. Implementation has proceeded smoothly, and according to designated pilot examiners (DPEs), the ACS is not more burdensome than the PTS. The big unknown, however, […]

I’m a retired airline captain, with some 25 years of line operations under my belt. After leaving behind the airline world, I bought a Beech Baron 55 to use on personal and business missions throughout the central U.S. Like so many during this pandemic, I stayed home and out of the cockpit earlier in 2020 […]

p>Beechcraft C90 King Air Antenna Blockage Troubleshot both #1 and #2 GPS systems due to failures. The #2 antenna resistance checked okay, but any time the #2 GPS system was turned on, it blocked all GPS signals to aircraft. With the #2 GPS system turned off, the #1 GPS system operated with no problems. Installed […]

June 1, 2020, Gulf Of Mexico Jabiru J250-SP LSA The private pilot departed with slightly less than 36 gallons of fuel aboard for the 262-nm flight, portions of which were over water. About 1.5 hours into the flight, he noticed that the fuel tank quantities were dropping rapidly. The engine subsequently lost all power, and […]

Thank you for an informative and (in my opinion) long overdue article on VMC and its associated hazards in light twin-engine aircraft (“Is VMC Fixed Or Variable?” August 2020). The closest I have come to my demise in my 47 years of flying occurred many years ago in a light twin (Beech Baron). As a […]

COVID-19 continues to impact the aviation world with a multitude of threats and challenges. Many have not been previously observed in aviation. While maintaining proficiency is a constant challenge, the lack thereof is a foe that aircrews have battled since the birth of the airplane and is currently revealing itself as a novel concern. In […]

I learned a lot about flying airplanes while working 60 feet underground. I served as a missile launch control officer in the U.S. Air Force in the waning days of the Cold War. We worked in two-person crews, a commander and a deputy, behind a sealed blast door in a small room filled with old-school […]