Three hours in a single, even a roomy one like the sturdy Piper Dakota, seems to be about the maximum sitting time for most PICs and especially their passengers. It also happens to be a good time to refuel, as the typical four-to-five-hour endurance allows for landing with ample reserves when it’s time for a […]
You might have heard the old adage, “The flight cannot be cleared for departure until the gross weight of the paperwork exceeds that of the aircraft.” While cynical, this reference to all the required processes, rules, and regulations makes a good point. Regulations and procedures for pilots largely mirror those of ATC, but these might […]
Recently, a subscriber sent me a note to ask about the legality of departures into bad weather. At first, this seemed like a rather simplistic question, but as I dug, the back story made it a reasonable discussion. That pilot had a career in the military. As with most large bureaucracies, its operations were rather […]
Kemper Aviation, a now-defunct flight school in Lantana, FL, was once clogged with over 100 young students. Some showed a lack of selfcontrol extending from their youthfully turbulent private lives on the ground upward to the skies of South Florida. Youngsters may think they are invulnerable. Most had yet to learn that invulnerability is a […]
Cleared … How? Regarding “Cutting You Loose” in the July issue, I’ve never actually been cleared by ATC with “Proceed on course,” after an off-route vector. When faced with this situation, I either got cleared present position to next waypoint or a vector back to the airway I’d left. As you said, anything vague or […]
ELECTRIC WINGSUIT FLOWN Electric propulsion is showing up in every corner of aviation and an Austrian skydiver has launched an electrically boosted wingsuit. Peter Salzmann and BMW collaborated on the contraption that will allow a wingsuit pilot to climb briefly and reach speeds of up to 186 mph. Salzmann leapt from a helicopter at 10,000 […]
Sometimes we stretch the regulations, or worse, common sense. Some examples include VFR weather minimums (scud running), night currency, or even logging. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not advocating that. But who among us hasn’t occasionally stretched the speed limit on a lonely country highway or even a busy urban commute, or committed some equally […]
I fly a Cessna Conquest and when I announce myself to air traffic control, sometimes they hear Citation, and I usually correct them so they know I can’t cruise at FL 430. The other day I was doing practice approaches at my home airport, and a student was on the tower frequency with me. Me: […]
The clock read a few minutes past noon when I pulled through my control tower’s entry gate. As always on my way into work, I took in the weather conditions, mentally prepping for the day ahead. A scattered cloud deck mottled the blue above. What drew my eye most, though, was a pocket of cumulus […]
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