System

The article, “Safety Pilot Rules” (March 2020 IFR), talked about the ins and outs of safety pilot roles, qualifications, responsibilities, and logging. Under 14 C.F.R. §91.109(c) safety pilots are considered required crewmembers. The minimum requirements for acting as a safety pilot are (1) a private pilot or higher certificate, (2) the applicable aircraft category and […]

Ever seen those videos of a retail store opening on Black Friday? The doors crack open. A tumbling mass of humanity spews in. Fights break out. People get trampled. Just good holiday fun… There are some days as an air traffic controller where it seems every single IFR airplane is filed the same route at […]

These pages often contain encouragement to pilots not to become so completely reliant on GPS that its loss constitutes no less than an emergency. GPS, both panel-mount and portable, can fail for external and internal reasons. Read about these GPS-failure events culled from ASRS reports. We hope this article will lead you to get some […]

How many of you file your own flight plan? How many of you file VFR flight plans? Of course, airlines have their own operations and dispatch departments who do all the background work and file the flight plans. With most Part 91 and some 135 operators, “Who filed what?” often gets to the person working […]

Pre-Departure Clearance or PDC is an FAA computer service that provides clearance information in text form to your tablet in the cockpit via Boeing ForeFlight or Garmin FltPlan. No copying the ATIS or clearance calls are required. Great, eh? Clearances issued via PDCs are official text clearances issued for U.S. IFR flight plans. A PDC […]

Special Use Airspace often must be avoided, but what if you need to cross military airways, or even fly into a Military Operations Area? Lots of GA destinations exist in such airspaces, and it’s certainly legal to fly within most, even when active. So when fuel’s tight and weather’s chasing you to an unknown destination, […]

In the grand scheme of air traffic control, Ground Control sometimes seems to be a supporting position. Radar’s taking fast-moving arrival streams and forging them into precise, parallel finals. Tower’s launching aircraft in the tight gaps between arrivals. Meanwhile, GC’s airplanes are … lumbering across concrete. It may not be sexy, but Ground’s my favorite […]

Aeronautical experience requirements for the coveted instrument rating include a dual cross country flight. On February 28, 2022, the FAA Chief Counsel rescinded two earlier interpretations regarding the required content of that flight. But the rescission doesn’t end the story or the questions. As of this writing, there is an important question outstanding. We will […]

Pilots have a general sense of who is on the other end of the radio, but controllers have a different internal name for the position they are working. While hearing but one or occasionally two voices on frequency, who else is standing there and watching what’s going on? There is more than one voice behind […]

While pilots and air traffic controllers work with each other daily, perhaps we don’t often think about the nitty-gritty details and problem-solving taking place on the other side. When everything appears to be running smoothly, there’s nothing to worry about, right? If I’m your controller for the moment and tell you, “Proceed direct [FIX],” it’s […]