IFR Magazine

Experts in print media say that it’s bad form for an editor to focus his/ her remarks on the magazine itself. “Be original,” they say. “Write about something related to the industry.” I’m going to ignore that guidance, but—I hope you’ll agree—with good reason. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last 40 […]

• Night Moves
• Other Approaches
• Go/No-Go Decisions
• Fudging Performance
• Trim Stalls

Circadian rhythm is the daily alteration in a person’s behavior and physiology controlled by an internal biological clock in the brain. Body temperature, melatonin levels, cognitive performance, alertness levels, and sleep patterns are all subject to our circadian rhythm. A circadian challenge refers to the difficulty of operating in opposition to an individual’s normal circadian […]

Many consider the instrument rating as the most difficult aeronautical achievement. This is probably even more the case today than when I earned that coveted capability almost a half-century ago. While aircraft haven’t changed much, the avionics, regulations, and AIM have all undergone significant metamorphosis. Today’s GPS equipment and the procedural techniques required in Technically […]

Star Wars Episode 1 While the Star Wars movie series has ended (spanning 42 years), it is alive and well at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (KATL) on the JEDII TWO ARRIVAL (RNAV). There are up to 11 Star Wars movies, depending on how you count. The original movie (1977) was Star Wars Episode IV: […]

Flight-planning your Washingtonstate mini-vacation taught you a lot about identifying obstacles on approach. Overall, IFR into Deer Park won’t be too onerous for terrain or procedures. But it does mean unseen obstructions—some close to the final approach path (see “Obstacle Hunt” in last month’s IFR). It took time to piece together the details using all […]

Garmin has sold over 16,000 Garmin G1000 units since its introduction in 2003. Properly used, a G1000 can make you look mighty good trekking the skies under IFR. Pilots gravitate to its feature-rich GPS capabilities. Yet too many pilots shortchange themselves if they neglect the machine’s considerable VOR resources. If your G1000 lacks WAAS, then […]

GPS in general aviation aircraft has become ubiquitous. So much so that the FAA’s move to a Performance Based Navigation (PBN) world based primarily on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is well underway. We are already seeing the cancellation of “redundant” and “underutilized” VOR (and NDB) approaches. For en-route navigation, we have the Minimum […]