Pilot Proficiency

In 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite. The American psyche was troubled by the potential of this technological second place. This planted the seeds of one of Americas greatest military and technological innovations-GPS.

About the only thing I personally know about Lincoln, Nebraska is a Dennys off Interstate 80. In my moderately delinquent youth, I helped a friend who couldnt afford a move from Connecticut to Colorado by renting a truck for local use one Thursday afternoon, disconnecting the odometer, round tripping across two time zones, and reconnecting it in time to log 30 miles before returning the truck Monday morning.

In our last issue, we talked about the building blocks of weather radar-how it was developed, the basics of radio waves, problems with radar sampling, and the important differences between composite and base reflectivity. If you havent read that, I highly recommend you do so to get a good grounding in radar fundamentals. In this issue well take that knowledge and teach you a bit about interpretation.

This August, just before the solar eclipse passed through the U.S., pilots from all over Utah flocked to southern Idaho into the zone of totality. The tower at Ogden Airport was busy, with a single controller handling tower and ground frequencies. As I taxied to the departure runway, several pilots called for clearances.

From reading Hadfields autobiography An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earthand listening to various interviews online, its clear Hadfield is no stranger to unexpected problems. From a seagull strike in an F/A-18 Hornet fighter at 500 knots a mere 50 feet above the water, to temporarily going blind during his first spacewalk because of contamination in his helmet, he has faced some unique situations.

Even after a couple hundred hours behind my Garmin GTN 650, there are still things I struggle to do properly. Chief among those is flying multiple approaches. Sure, we mostly have to do that in practice, but if you miss at a busy airport or the winds change after youve set up, you might find yourself needing to plug in that second approach, or third. If you were like me, youd get things hopelessly bollixed up before you just cleared the flight plan and started over.

If you’re unfamiliar with the YouTube aviation star known as Flight Chops, you have a lot of homework to do. Fortunately, we’re such big fans of pilot Steve Thorne’s work (and chops) that we’re proud to be sharing some of his greatest hits on our website, so you won’t have to go far to catch […]

In our new online series, The Finer Points, CFII Jason Miller gives you the information and tools you’ll need to become not just a better pilot, but a truly exceptional aviator. On August 27, 2006, a regional airliner taxied onto the wrong runway in the semi dark of morning and attempted a takeoff on a […]

One of my favorite jokes about the airline pilot profession involves a mother who brings her wide-eyed, grade-school-age son into the cockpit for a visit. After the awestruck boy is given his tour, the mother asks her son if he would like to be an airline pilot when he grows up. The captain interjects and […]

I graduated from college in 1965. The Vietnam War was in full swing, and any able-bodied male who was not being educated was being drafted. I could have gone to graduate school, but instead decided to take my chances. I moved in with a couple of old friends in Palo Alto, California. Having a fancy […]