IFR Magazine

ATC rule #1: Don’t hit nuthin’. But to achieve that, there are rules and standards. Here’s a quick rundown on those so you can better understand what the controller needs.

Performance-based navigation focuses on an aircraft’s performance capabilities instead of its navigation sensors.

In early September 2024, the FAA published the third amendment to the Basic AIM, which was published in 2023. The most prominent change offers practical guidance on recognizing, mitigating, and adapting to GPS interference. It also restates the importance of reporting an event.

Approaches like the KOWD LOC RWY 35 were once common, but they’re almost retro today. Nonetheless, they still exist and we should know how to fly them.

One of the most feared calls a pilot can receive is, “Possible pilot deviation. Advise you contact [facility] at [phone number].” Now what?

While the self-righteous denigrate those who mess up, we shout our barbaric yawp in praise of folly.

More Circle On a Straight-In In your October 2024 issue, you were spot on, per usual, with your answer for the primary reason someone would circle when attempting a straight in: too high and too close upon breakout into VMC. If the conditions are just so, then why not? There’s no VFR traffic to contend […]

Airbus Proposes Flight Deck Toilets Pilot unions object to Airbus’s proposal to equip at least some of its aircraft with flight deck toilets. The plan is to put an open biffy behind the captain’s seat so that single-pilot operations can flow smoothly during long haul flights on Extended Minimum Crew Operations (eMCO) protocols. Airbus is […]

Recently, my wife purchased a new vehicle. This vehicle is amazingly advanced and automated. In fact, at times I’ve called it a rolling platform of networked computers, each of which drives electric motors that control everything from mirrors and seats, to pedals and the steering wheel.  Of course, it also has a hands-free self-driving mode. […]

This photograph gives new perspective to the adage “A survivable landing is a good landing.” Who says airport planners don’t have a sense of humor? Now where are you supposed to be looking on short final? Imagine the phone call: “Honey, I landed a bit long and ended up in the cemetery!” —Daniel Spitzer, Piermont, […]