IFR Magazine

Last January, the FAA changed internal policy on reporting potential pilot deviations. The stated goal was to discover why adverse safety events happen and identify the risks. The real-world fallout of this is pilots are getting warning letters in the mail for events they would have blown off in the past.

My editorial on learning to fly after the kids are grown (Flight Begins at 40, or Maybe 50, March 2012 IFR) struck a chord and earned several responses. The story was consistent: Im 50 (or 60 or 70) and just learned to fly. Youre right, we need older people acting as advocates to get more people with the means and the long-dormant wanting to make the leap.

My home recently came under the attack of two adopted, seven-month-old kittens. Watch these pint-sized entropy enhancers for five minutes and youll know why they say cats have nine lives. Climbing the curtains sure seemed like a good idea at the time. Now hanging in space by 10 front claws and slipping, diverting to a Plan B might be in order. Then superior engineering borne of millennia of evolution kicks in, and dropping 15 times their own height ends with a perfect landing and a surprise attack on the lamp cord.

Today I’m daydreaming about sneaking into a boardroom where avionics execs are brainstorming the next generation of avionics. The more time I spend with the latest avionics, the more I figure these guys could use some help. Besides, it’s likely there’s free coffee and donuts. Freelance CFI habits die hard. While they’re talking features and […]

One of my secret wishes is that when Im 90 Ill have at least half the belly-fire of Howie Keefe. The man is 90 (or maybe 91 now) and still attacks the day like hes flying a P-51-something he did ’round the pylons of Reno many years back. Thats just one facet of a flying career that would keep your rapt attention over several beers.

One of the bigger aviation stories as 2011 wound to a close was the fact that the FAA was going to start charging for access to digital versions of its chart products: sectionals, en route charts, approach charts, the AF/D, etc. Details were revealed in a meeting with vendors that described a $5 million hole […]

As I write this editorial, the pilot community is buzzing with the news that Aeronav (a.k.a., the government chart folks) is going to start charging for the digital chart downloads after April 5, 2012. Well cover the fallout of this for IFR pilots in the next issue, as much of that fallout hinges on a meeting that wont happen until after we go to press.

Its all Chets fault. The whole thing had started over beers, with Brian regaling us with details of his latest foray down south in his Cirrus.

ADS-B weather for the iPad has been around for a while, but this is the first year pilots get some real choices. Baron released its Mobile Link with XM weather for the iPad. SkyRadar, which puts ADS-B weather into WingX on the iPad, just released a new device. FreeFlight Systems is promising an in-panel, complete ADS-B solution (traffic and weather) that will wirelessly send data to the iPad.

A few years ago, I managed to shoot an approach to minimums and not even know it. I was hauling cargo from Memphis to St. Louis Downtown. The forecasts at St. Louis werent all that bad, maybe 1000 overcast and three miles visibility. When I picked up ATIS, it had worsened to 400 and a mile. Eh, no sweat for a freight dog. I shot the ILS and landed uneventfully.