IFR Magazine

After completing its investigation of two fatal midair crashes last year in which seven people died, the NTSB in November issued a Safety Alert urging general-aviation pilots to make use of cockpit technologies that can help them see and avoid other aircraft. The inaugural Sport Aviation Showcase kicked off in Deland, Florida, in November, providing a new venue for fans of light sport aircraft. Boom Technology of Denver, Colorado, unveiled its XB-1 one-third-scale supersonic demonstrator in November. NBAAs annual Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition was held in Orlando, Florida in October, and led with big news from Cirrus that they have achieved FAA certification for their single-engine jet.

Unless youve already made your own checklist(s), chances are youll want to add a few items to what youve got so far. Say you mostly fly IFR. Youll want IFR-specific items in your checklists. So, consider adding items for flight plan (checked), departure briefing, approach briefing, etc. Or, perhaps youve found that turning off your fuel pump during the After Takeoff check is something you often forget. Consider making a redundant entry in the Cruise check.

This gets into how these various Advisory Circulars are updated. Once an AC is issued, its assigned a number and a version letter, such as AC 00-45G, Aviation Weather Services. That version can be revised by issuing changes. So, the full specification of the most recent document is AC 00-45G, Change 2. The main document-original version-is what is returned by the various searches; youve got to dig just a bit further to find the changed versions.

Some of you might recall that almost two years ago I retired as an airline captain. Then, due to various circumstances both in and out of my control, I took a year hiatus from all self-piloted flight. The result was some serious catching up to do to get ready to fly my own personal flivver. Being an opportunistic magazine editor, I used that need to also create a number of articles for the magazine about the process.

Growing up, I enjoyed Vietnam War helicopter-pilot memoirs, like Robert Masons Chickenhawk. U.S. Army Air Cavalry helos were a lifeline for American troops, but clear landing zones were rare in the deep jungle. Pilots got creative when wounded soldiers and critical supplies were on the line. Mason describes literally hacking down trees with the main rotor of his UH-1 Huey to land where he needed to be.

Think about it. Can you do an engine runup without referring to the instructions? You probably already do the entire sequence without referring to the check list. You see, Runup on the paper, so you set the power, check the mags, cycle the carb heat or open the alternate air, cycle the prop and check the ammeter and vacuum meter. Then you look back at the paper and perhaps skip through the next seven or so items because you just did them without looking. Theres a better way.

Its that time of year when we who have successfully covered up our own boneheaded mistakes snicker over the antics of those less fortunate flyers who have failed and got caught. This review of NTSB accident reports from 2013 makes no pretense of learning from others mistakes. The following acts of aerial mayhem are a reminder that no matter how bad your own decision making might be, theres always someone eager to lower the bar. We skip fatal accidents and usually give errant student pilots a pass, because their brains arent yet fully developed.

Weve taken wireless connections granted for years now in our daily lives. But, when our airplanes play, its again pretty exciting. We wrote about Garmins Flight Stream 110 and 210 in February 2016. Now, the next generation of this device will cut your database costs and effort to boot.

Most modern comm radios can tune frequencies with 8.33 kHz channel spacing, which currently is required only in high altitude airspace in Europe (Code Y). It would not be necessary to indicate that in the U.S. Further, Im not sure we can file a performance-based navigation (PBN) code as they require FAA approval. The closet reference is AC 90-100A-maybe someone can interpret this for Part 91 (non 91K) operations.

I periodically fly down to Wings Field in eastern Pennsylvania from my home base in Concord, NH. The direct route takes me through the western portion of New Yorks Class B airspace. I always use flight following for these VFR flights. One time when I was handed off to the controller handling the Newark arrivals this conversation transpired: