Pilot Proficiency

I had to cancel a flight the other day and go airline, and I was mad at myself. Not because I made the wrong decision — a cutoff low aloft meant the weather along my route was really ugly — but because my priorities were out of whack. I had squeezed flying into a narrow […]

On the morning of December 29, 2015, I was planning a flight in my flying club’s Piper PA-28-235 from Northwest Regional Airport (52F) in Roanoke, Texas, to Clark Field Municipal Airport (KSEP) in Stephenville. The idea was to have lunch at a favorite barbecue restaurant. I planned to depart 52F and land at Fort Worth […]

An angle of attack indicator offers a visual indication of the amount of lift the wing is generating at a given airspeed or angle of bank. The AOA delivers critical information visually or through an aural tone to indicate the actual safety margin above an aerodynamic stall. AOAs are created around one of two systems, […]

“Airspeed alive. Eighty knots. V1. Rotate,” I said as I rolled down Runway 18C at Memphis International Airport in HondaJet N420HB. Immediately after rotation — boom! One engine failed. “Lots of right rudder. Heading bug centered. Positive rate, gear up. Pitch for V2. Push FLC. Altitude check, autopilot on. Continue climb to 2,000 feet. Select […]

Youve probably heard the morbid axiom: FAA regulations are written in blood. Many of the rules fattening the books governing pilots and air traffic controllers were brought about by unfortunate incidents. Line up and wait (LUAW) is a significant example. Its an inherently risky maneuver: a controller places an airplane on a runway but doesnt let them take off due to other traffic using the runway or on final to that same runway.

Last month, Handling Windshear, described how to recognize, avoid and, handle an encounter with windshear. The focus of that article was the practical side of piloting but we necessarily touched on the basics of the weather behind thunderstorms, microbursts and windshear. Now its time to dig deeper into that meteorology.

The visual approach slope indicator (VASI) and precision approach path indicator (PAPI) are light systems on the side of a runway threshold that provide visual descent guidance information during approach. Here are the particulars of the different types of path-lighting systems: Two-Bar Visual Approach Slope Indicator (VASI) Two-bar VASI installations provide one visual glidepath, which […]

Runway visual range, or RVR, precisely measures the distance that a pilot flying an ILS approach might expect to see when looking down the runway in those critical seconds just before touchdown. Because landing and some takeoff minimums are based on visibility, an operating RVR system is a vital operational element to support the high […]

Regulations prevent collisions through right-of-way rules. These codified decencies apply to the road, sea and air. For aviation, 14 CFR 91.113 warns that regardless of whether an operation is conducted under instrument flight rules or visual flight rules, vigilance shall be maintained by each person operating an aircraft so as to see and avoid other aircraft. Sage advice, that, especially with our butts in the hot seat.

I just got the April issue of IFR and your editorial (Do You Need EFIS?) exactly described my dilemma! My HSI needs to be repaired and Aspen has a sale on. To get the Aspen and install it is just a few grand more than repairing the HSI. I found Put It Together: DIY SOP in the May issue to be excellent. The creation of a personal SOP is a fantastic venture for any pilot and a very worthwhile, enjoyable and educational process.