Pilot Proficiency

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.

After about eight months, as of early November, according to AOPA, approximately 25,000 pilots had taken advantage of BasicMed since the official roll-out on May 1, 2017. Since the FAA does not track this, we dont know the exact percentage of pilots who did not have a current medical after a multi-year hiatus from flying and decided to get back into flying with BasicMed, as opposed to pilots with medicals who renewed expiring medicals with BasicMed. AOPA estimates about 50% for each group. It will probably take at least two years for the BasicMed numbers to stabilize as pilots with current medicals decide to renew with BasicMed, but at this time it seems to be working.

Pilots around Lake Michigan know theres a popular route down the lakeshore with the Chicago skyline just off the wingtip. This offers fantastic views of downtown Chicago and is a practical way to transit from eastern Wisconsin to anywhere southeast of Windy City. You might even have a reason to stop at Chicago Midway and get a really close look at that famous skyline.

February and March bring the peak season of the squall line. They are perhaps the most formidable of all the mid-latitude weather systems. Most of us at one time or another have witnessed the alarming black mass spanning almost the entire western horizon, followed by the fury of raw wind, small hail, and torrential rains. Indeed these storms were recognized by early Scandinavian fishermen and traders for the sheer amount of rain they produced. In the 17th century the Norwegians gave us the word skval, meaning a sudden rush of water, anglicized to squall by the sailors of Britain.

Since the introduction of the internal combustion engine, engineers and entrepreneurs alike have searched for ways to squeeze more horsepower from each gallon of fuel. Despite those efforts, the traditional two-magneto system that provides the spark for combustion in an aircraft piston engine has remained essentially unchanged since World War II. In pairs, magnetos have proved […]

When I was a child there was an apple tree in our front yard. It was a joy. In the summertime you could walk up to that tree, shake it and feast on those delicious loose apples that were just about ready to fall to the ground on their own but hadn’t yet. Sometimes, if […]

Recently I had lunch with my friend and colleague Jeff Van West, Jenny Van West, a talented musician and Jeffs delightful wife, and 14-year-old Baxter, their youngest son. Baxter is an uncommonly bright and interesting young man with the not-uncommon black-and-white simplistic view of the world that is the purview of youth.

Textron Reveals New TwinTextron plans to build an all-new, clean-sheet-design, large-utility twin turboprop, and start deliveries by 2020, the company said in November. The new airplane was developed with launch customer FedEx Express in mind, offering almost twice the interior space of the Caravan 208 plus a large cargo door to support container operations. The Cessna SkyCourier 408 will improve fuel efficiency, reliability and operating costs over the current fleet, according to FedEx Express. It will be powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-65SC turbines, with a cruise speed of up to 200 knots and a 900-NM range. The cockpit will be equipped with Garmin G1000 avionics. The company has signed on for 50 of the $5.5 million turboprops, with options for up to 50 more.