IFR Magazine

Turning cockpit technology into mission capability takes more than reading manuals. Meld the surfeit of data into your decision-making process to get more from your pixels.

Debates are a mainstay of hangar-flying discussions. Those debates can become particularly compelling and energized when the weather is below minimums or the wind is sending small structures and the occasional passerby tumbling across the ramp. Youll often hear conflicting statements from different pilots, many even beginning, Well, the examiner on my last checkride said…

Each pilot must comply with any departure procedures established for that airport by the FAA. Id bet a lunch with the editor of IFR that this excerpt from Part 91.129 (g)was written by some non-flying FAA lawyer. It sounds good by itself, but how do you apply this rule on a day when youre launching IFR but the initial climb is in the clear and in direct violation of the local noise-abatement policy? If you fly the departure, are you in violation? What if you turn for noise, will you get a tongue-lashing from ATC when you check on?

On Nov. 6, 2007, a King Air crashed seconds after a low-visibility takeoff from 26L at Chino, Calif., (KCNO). The NTSBs typically terse probable cause determination of the accident-… the pilots failure to maintain a positive climb rate during an instrument takeoff …-provides few clues as to what led the 3100-hour commercial pilot to mow the tops of nearby trees on his brief climb-out.

People are naturally social creatures, eager to converse with their own kind. While friendly chit-chat is great during quality time with the friends and family, when you key up a radio frequency, its time to pare back the language and cut to the chase.

The loss of SpaceShipTwo during a test flight in November wont shut down Virgin Galactics space-tourism project, according to CEO Richard Branson. Branson also said he still plans to be aboard the first commercial passenger flight. NTSB staffers said their investigation wont be complete for about a year, but in the first few days after the accident, they found that the aircrafts feather mechanism — a rotating tail boom intended to slow the aircraft on descent from high altitudes — was prematurely deployed, and initiated the breakup of the aircraft at about 50,000 feet. Pilot Peter Siebold was injured but survived, and co-pilot Michael Alsbury was killed. A second spaceship is already under construction and is expected to launch in 2015.

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Air traffic control at the Armys busiest airfield can be unique at times.ATC: Stingray 54, traffic a little bit taller than you out your right door, a Creek, report traffic in sight.ATC: Bandit 45, follow the Chinook out your front door, cleared for takeoff.

The last question on Octobers Killer Quiz asks at what altitude you must leave the MPV VOR. Youve departed on the ODP, which says to cross MPV at or above 3500 feet before proceeding on course. But, the scenario is that youre entering an ILS 17 feeder route from MPV, and that altitude is 5900 to the IAF at TJAYS. You said its required to cross MPV at 5900 (answer c). I disagree.

Even as a kid, I recognized the hyperbole in the old clich about my elders having it tough, walking to school two miles through heavy snow-uphill in both directions. So any time I start down the path of When I was younger… something inside me clicks and I quickly change gears. Until now.