IFR Magazine

Departures into low clouds might not be your thing, and that’s fine. Staying on the ground is the ultimate risk mitigation for absolutely any concern. But departing in IMC is common practice and can mean anything below three statute miles of visibility and/or ceilings below 1000 feet. That’s a wide weather window when deciding if […]

There are many stories about the horrible freeze we had in Texas this year, but I think this one of the funniest. I planned a flight to McAllen, TX, from the Lago Vista Rusty Allen Airport in the Austin area, and the runway was frozen over and covered with snow. Having grown up in North […]

Before EFBs and apps displaying electronic terminal and en-route charts, we went through a monthly update ritual with paper charts. Every 28 days Jeppesen chart subscribers got new and updated paper sheets. The new sheets had to be placed into the famous Jeppesen seven-ring binders. Then obsolete charts were discarded. Depending on the subscription coverage, […]

In my Air Force, then airline career I have dealt with many accents speaking English. Most are fairly easy to “decode” but one day flying into Boston, I was defeated. With my copilot flying, I was handling the radio. Handed off to Boston Approach, I was greeted by a female voice with a pronounced Boston […]

Your trip to Florida wasn’t what you envisioned when launching from Texas that morning in clear skies. But what matters is you made it in safely despite things going wrong in the last 50 miles. Chalk it up to 1) a robust recurrent training regimen and 2) top-notch preflight planning, which had you collecting items […]

Little-known Coded Departure Routes can solve routing problems for bad weather, traffic, and more. Are you up on the ins and outs of CDRs?