Aviation Safety

If the primary yardstick determining what constitutes a “bad” landing is the number and magnitude of its bounces, my worst landing ever was in a Cessna 182 at a beachside airport in North Carolina, with all the seats filled. I dropped it in pretty good, and the airplane’s eloquent reflection of my ineptitude resulted in […]

The FAA in February published a new rule designed to enhance professional development among air carrier pilots, with an emphasis on supplemental training for existing captains and more comprehensive indoctrination for new hires. The new rule becomes goes into effect April 27, 2020, although some of its various components don’t become effective for 24 or […]

If you’re like us, you have multiple sources for aeronautical data—charts—that can be in digital or paper format. Also like us, maybe the digital data you use in the cockpit comes from different vendors, even if it’s the same basic information. Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, even the FAA, with the eventual result […]

Just as with any other complex endeavor that’s developed over time, aviation has many myths. That’s especially true when it comes to FAA regulations—the FARs. To be fair, there are a lot of regulations, and many of them are written for attorneys, not pilots. Especially for newer pilots or those who fly different aircraft in […]

In unguarded moments, many pilots will confess to what has come to be called “mic fright”—fear of talking on their aircraft’s radio. There may be many reasons for this aversion, but there is no way to avoid voice communication by radio if one plans to be an accomplished pilot. While those working to improve their […]

This was an otherwise-routine, night VFR mission, and a proficiency flight for the SIC, who was serving as pilot at the controls (PAC). At 2345 local time and after approximately three hours on station at 24,000 feet msl about 20 miles east of the airfield, the PIC, in the right seat and the pilot not […]

A popular misconception is that the Wright brothers, in addition to all of their other achievements, invented the airfoil. They didn’t. Sir John Cayley, an English engineer who also first identified the four forces of flight—lift, drag, thrust and weight—developed the cambered airfoil through detailed experimentation. His three-part work, On Aerial Navigation, published in 1809 and […]

I’d like to add one more suggestion to Thomas Turner’s article on “Handling In-Close Approach Changes” (January 2020). Using ForeFlight on a tablet, I have found the pilot can switch from one approach plate to another in literally a couple of seconds rather than the several minutes it takes to thumb through a booklet looking […]

I’ve long been a big fan of Ernest K. Gann’s writings, to the extent I pull down and re-read my copy of “Fate Is The Hunter” once a year or so. It’s a remembrance of Gann’s service as an airline pilot before WWII, then as a cargo pilot during the war, and his adjustment to […]

Beechcraft 95-B55 Baron Misinstalled Aileron The right aileron outboard attach disconnected in flight due to improper installation. On inspection, pick-up points for aileron attachment had been missed internally due to difficulty in visual alignment in between skins where failed to engage hinge. Previous log book entries show the aileron had not been removed since 1990. […]