FLYING Magazine

This is an old story, but it’s one I still think about often. In January 1960, I found myself in the right seat of an 85 hp Luscombe 8F on top of a thick layer of smog blanketing the infamous Los Angeles basin, the setting sun perilously close to the western horizon. The pilot, my […]

Visual approaches offer pilots an opportunity to remain within the IFR system but fly direct to the airport on their own. Once ATC issues a visual approach, however, responsibility for navigation and terrain clearance is transferred from the ground to the cockpit. Avionics manufacturers recently began adding visual-­approach capabilities to their navigation suites to create […]

In an era of satellite-based precision approaches, a pilot’s understanding of how to find the destination airport using a nondirectional beacon might seem a waste of time. But in the United States, hundreds of NDBs remain in service, according to the FAA. Alaska alone has 70. Flying an NDB approach requires considerably more pilot attention because […]

Flying is the only magazine I subscribe to. I always make a point of reading each issue front to back, although sometimes out of order, and I’m always eager to read the stories in the I Learned about Flying from That column. Now I have my own story to tell of a recent adventure — […]

After decades of faulting pilots involved in collisions or near-misses for inadequate vigilance, the NTSB now officially concedes that see-and-avoid is a highly unreliable system.

On the morning of December 29, 2015, I was planning a flight in my flying club’s Piper PA-28-235 from Northwest Regional Airport (52F) in Roanoke, Texas, to Clark Field Municipal Airport (KSEP) in Stephenville. The idea was to have lunch at a favorite barbecue restaurant. I planned to depart 52F and land at Fort Worth […]

We were flying VFR, but just barely. Our group included a ­dozen Grand Canyon sightseeing pilots returning from a ­morning trip to the South Rim, an assortment of ­Cessna 206s, 207s and 310s, airplanes loaded with tourists ready for naps and completely unaware of our meandering detours as we sought safe passage. But we were all […]

I was a 30-year-old 600-hour instrument instructor with half ownership in a well-equipped Piper Archer II and a good job to pay the bills. I felt I had a good understanding of my personal minimums and promised myself never to break them — a policy that has paid off many times. But that almost wasn’t the […]

People like to ask, “What was your favorite flight?” There are so many, I wouldn’t know how to choose. But ask me to choose my least favorite flight, and I can tell you in a heartbeat. It started on a beautiful February day. My buddy Shaun decided to join me. We made a lot of […]

At first glance, approach plates like Louisville’s ILS Runway 35R are easily discernible to instrument pilots. But during a recurrent training session when an instructor or examiner begins digging into the specifics, sweaty palms can easily follow. Here are a few penetrating questions to test your knowledge. For our quiz today, assume the DME-equipped aircraft […]