Readback

Frank Bowlin may have a misunderstanding of how the CDI needle works while the HSI is using LOC signals.

I second Bob Keepings frustration with Jepp FD (Tales of iPad Mischief, September 2012 IFR). Im mostly a weekend pilot and dont use all the features he does, but Ive experienced the screen pinch problem for at least six months now. Most of the time it rendered FD unusable for en route operations, so I also installed ForeFlight and learned to live with NACO en route charts.

When More is Less“Searching the Sky” in the July issue was a phenomenal article. The cascading failures of this new technology are not well understood. With my G600, a pitot-static glitch, which in the good old days would have caused a barely-noticeable blip on my round VSI or ASI, now throws my ADC into re-compute […]

Recently during an approach to an uncontrolled airport, I asked the Approach controller for a telephone number I could use to contact Approach directly if necessary after landing to cancel the IFR clearance. I am the chief instructor at a busy 141 flight school. I have been flying for over 40 years. I get a […]

IFR Lite? Are You Kidding?I enjoyed Mr. Thorpe’s well-balanced article comparing IFR training in the U.S. and the U.K. (“European IFR Changes” June 2012 IFR). I would, however, like to comment on two of his statements. It is a longtime complaint of mine when an IFR aircraft announces an IFR fix for the airport without […]

On Top…Of What, Where?Thanks for Joe Shelton’s article on VFR-on-top operations in the August, 2013 issue. Your information was excellent and quite helpful. I have found VFR-on-top very useful out here in the mountainous western U.S., where MEA’s are high and some bumpy cumulus buildups make flying uncomfortable or even impossible at IFR altitudes in […]

Just Let DownAs an instrument student, thank you for a great magazine. I especially always look forward to the Killer Quiz. But the Canadian rules also have another twist. CARs 602.73 says “A pilot-in-command may file an IFR flight itinerary instead of an IFR flight plan where the flight is conducted in part or in […]

Can I Really Do That?I read with amazement Paul Bertorelli’s sidebar regarding “IFR in Class G Airspace” in the June issue. Just so I’m clear on this…I can file an IFR flight plan, climb into my plane at a non-towered airport which lies within Class G airspace, fire it up and climb out into the […]

Don’t Need ‘em? Delete ‘em.In “Readback” in June, you said that the major airports at the heart of Class B airspace typically only use ILS and visual approaches. Why, then, does the FAA continue to plan, update, certify and flight check all the other approaches to these airports? It must be a considerable cost—in time […]

Who Ya Gonna Call?Your April article on oxygen mentioned that you could only find one company who’d talk to you Well, you didn’t contact Aeromedix. We would have not only responded immediately, we would have told you that the FAA has finally acknowledged that “oxygen is oxygen” and instead of “aviator’s breathing oxygen” the FAA […]