Technique

Think about it. Can you do an engine runup without referring to the instructions? You probably already do the entire sequence without referring to the check list. You see, Runup on the paper, so you set the power, check the mags, cycle the carb heat or open the alternate air, cycle the prop and check the ammeter and vacuum meter. Then you look back at the paper and perhaps skip through the next seven or so items because you just did them without looking. Theres a better way.

Growing up, I enjoyed Vietnam War helicopter-pilot memoirs, like Robert Masons Chickenhawk. U.S. Army Air Cavalry helos were a lifeline for American troops, but clear landing zones were rare in the deep jungle. Pilots got creative when wounded soldiers and critical supplies were on the line. Mason describes literally hacking down trees with the main rotor of his UH-1 Huey to land where he needed to be.

Its that time of year when we who have successfully covered up our own boneheaded mistakes snicker over the antics of those less fortunate flyers who have failed and got caught. This review of NTSB accident reports from 2013 makes no pretense of learning from others mistakes. The following acts of aerial mayhem are a reminder that no matter how bad your own decision making might be, theres always someone eager to lower the bar. We skip fatal accidents and usually give errant student pilots a pass, because their brains arent yet fully developed.

Weve taken wireless connections granted for years now in our daily lives. But, when our airplanes play, its again pretty exciting. We wrote about Garmins Flight Stream 110 and 210 in February 2016. Now, the next generation of this device will cut your database costs and effort to boot.

We spend most of our IFR lives wrapped in the warm cocoon of radar coverage, vectored from point to point by the all-seeing presence of ATC. And while controllers are human and occasionally make mistakes, the checks and safety nets in place rarely result in close calls, let alone bent metal. Its also true that when clearances get tight in the final descent to the airport, responsibility is handed over to the pilot.

To assume that an aircraft automation system has a will of its own and will try to kill us would be anthropomorphic. Autopilots and other automation systems have not reached that stage of sophistication. Not yet. What can-and too often does-happen, however, is that flight crews turn the flying duties over to the autopilot and relax. With frightening repetition, this ends in disaster.

At the end of 2015, the FAA counted 590,039 active certificated pilots. Divide that by the over-18 population of about 248 million people in July, 2015 and we discover that pilots make up just 0.24 percent of the population. If that doesnt mark us as nonconformists, what does? There is a place for out-of-the-box thinking in aviation, even in that most rigid domain of airline aviation. I would rather fly with someone possessing something like Sullys creativity than fly with a living automaton who would have gone right to the FMS looking for a solution while the airplane descended inexorably toward earth. Im certain there are creative cockpit thinkers taking creative and appropriate actions every day. They just dont make the front page.

I periodically fly down to Wings Field in eastern Pennsylvania from my home base in Concord, NH. The direct route takes me through the western portion of New Yorks Class B airspace. I always use flight following for these VFR flights. One time when I was handed off to the controller handling the Newark arrivals this conversation transpired:

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The FAAs long-awaited ADS-B rebate program launched on September 19, and drew more than 1300 applicants in the first two days, according to David Gray, the FAAs ADS-B program manager. A robotic co-pilot that can be quickly installed in a variety of aircraft has been successfully tested in a Diamond DA-42 and a Cessna Caravan by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Textron Aviation flew its prototype Citation Longitude for the first time, in October. The super-midsize Longitude was announced in 2012. The crew of a Hawker 700A jet that crashed in Akron, Ohio, a year ago showed a disregard for safety, NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart said in October, and the company they worked for, Execuflight, also fell short of their obligations.”