Pilot Proficiency

Landing gear gets as little respect as that old comedian Rodney Dangerfield — not much, really, which is surprising when you consider that almost everyone seems to measure the quality of the flight by the smoothness of the touchdown. That final transition that turns a flying airplane into a taxiing one, even when the distance […]

Advancing age and retirement bring on a certain sense of freedom and may, in fact, inhibit one’s social filter. And though I have worried mightily about what the devil I would do with myself once unemployed, I can report from two months in, so far, so good. An older friend told me long ago that […]

In 1958, as a stunt intended to promote the new Hacienda Hotel in Las Vegas, two pilots, Robert Timm and John Cook, stayed aloft in a Cessna 172, regularly refueled from a racing pickup truck, for 64 days and 22 hours. (Why they didn’t stay up another two hours and make it an even 65 […]

An Airbus A320 crew departs Chicago O’Hare Airport for Minneapolis. It is the first flight of a three-leg day, using the same airplane. Throughout the day, the pilots and flight attendants experience a “musty socks” odor. On the last flight, from Chicago to Boston, ATC gives a frequency change for the next sector. Despite having […]

Well, this is it. I’ve given notice. This three-day trip will be my last as a CJ3 captain for ­JetSuite. It has been a grand three years and a few days, but the nights away from home just got to be too many. When this trip is over, I will be ­retired. I won’t be […]

When St. Mary’s Church asked Cincinnati bishop Joseph Binzer to officiate at a “Blessing of Aircraft” ceremony at Grimes Field in Urbana, Ohio, Bishop Joe demonstrated remarkable faith in divine providence and flew with me in 72B to this central Ohio town. It was September 18, the feast day of a 17th-century Italian monk famous […]

The last time I flew my flying club’s 1940 J-3 Cub, it really should have been with the door open and warm breezes wafting through the cabin, passing low over rolling pastures and smelling the verdant earthiness of a rural Minnesota summer. This is the way every pilot should experience flying at least once in […]

The Hawker jet was descending through 13,500 feet, near the end of a 34-minute hop from Dayton, Ohio, to Akron Fulton Airport, when one of the passengers leaned through the cockpit door. “You guys know where we’re going, right?” It was a joke, but it wasn’t far off the mark. The National Transportation Safety Board’s […]

Just a little bit lower.” Those words are a great way to star in an NTSB accident report (right up there with “watch this”), since they usually precede a dangerous maneuver. While low passes are certainly not a new ­invention, the motivation for them seems to have evolved lately, and we can thank the smartphone. […]

Pressure Altitude Density Altitude Example: Pressure altitude = 6,000 feet Outside air temp = 13 degrees C ISA (@ 6,000 feet) = 3 degrees C {from rule of thumb: (-2 degrees x each 1,000 feet msl) + 15 = ISA} (13 – 3) x 120 + 6,000 = 7,200 feet density altitude Indicated Altitude True […]