Pilot Proficiency

General aviation pilots take grief for their spoiled-rich-kid activities. In some cases thats appropriate, but in others it isnt. Last month I briefly mentioned an extended trip my wife and I took in our gratuitously excessive Cessna 340. (Read last months Remarks for context.) I didnt mention that the series of legs we undertook probably couldnt have been accomplished as readily via the airlines.

The Mayo Clinic is now offering a free online BasicMed course for pilots. The course takes about 90 minutes to complete and is followed by an online test. Pilots must submit evidence of having passed a physical exam prior to beginning the course. Once the course is completed, pilots can print a certificate to keep in their logbooks. Certification information is then transmitted to the FAA. The clinic is the second organization, after AOPA, to offer an online BasicMed course. Pilots who choose to fly under the BasicMed rules must take an online course every two years.

Well, I guess you and the FAA will have to spank me. The stabilized approach is just a technique. Some pilots do not believe in this concept and fly decelerating final approaches for a specific reason-better energy available.

A good friend of mine is a physician and a pilot. (No, there isnt a Bonanza in his hangar; he happily flies a Mooney Ovation.) Ive always found him to be a very safety-conscious pilot. He gets an IPC every six months and does other periodic training. When he wanted to do something different, I suggested he get an airline transport pilot certificate with an airplane single-engine land rating. (ATP-SEL) Why? was his first reaction. I dont need it for the kind of flying I do.

As a requirement for our upcoming flying safari trip in New Zealand, I had to produce evidence of a “type rating” in a Cessna 172. The type rating was part of the qualifications necessary to obtain the equivalent of a Private Pilot license. Although I have flown a C-172 periodically throughout my flying lifetime, I […]

For pilots expecting never again to face a non-precision approach tied to a land-based navaid, we can confirm that rumors of the demise of the VOR have been greatly exaggerated. In 2016, the FAA began eliminating many of the GPS overlay approaches tied to older VOR procedures ahead of plans to also eliminate a significant […]

Pilots who want the most out of their Garmin avionics can attend a number of new, expanded pilot training classes this year. The instructor-led classes are available for the GTN 650/750 touchscreen navigators, the G500/G600 glass flight display systems, and all Garmin integrated flight decks, including the new G1000 NXi platform. Garmin says supplemental eLearning […]

For his first video of 2018, Flight Chops (AKA Steve Thorne) is conducting a sort of victory lap for what he says is probably his best accomplishment of 2017. The feat? “Actually starting and finishing something.” We all know how good that can feel. More specifically, he earned his multi engine rating, and now his […]

Some things are inevitable. Sunrises and sunsets. A character in every Star Wars movie saying, Ive got a bad feeling about this. Also… at some point during your instrument flying career, youre going to get your first of many reroutes.

It had to happen one of these times. Today youll fly the approach that makes NetJets pilots wish theyd taken that cargo job over the Great Lakes: the infamous LOC/DME-E into Aspen, CO. Its 3500 feet of localizer stepdowns to a MAP thats still 2.6 miles from the runway. The missed is a climb on dedicated backcourse past hills so dramatic one Citation pilot friend puts it: When we fly into Aspen, I dont look out the window until were about to land. And even then, I dont look up. Many companies require special training to fly paying passengers into Aspen, Eagle, and similar mountain airports.