Pilot Proficiency

I kept reminding myself, late last summer, that I had to let the editor of Flying‘s back page, Bethany Whitfield, know that the first article I ever wrote for Flying had appeared in the December 1965 issue, and, therefore, would qualify for mention in the “50 Years Ago” slot in the December 2015 issue. Given […]

The tiny, private dirt strip, 1,800 feet long, was way out in the boondocks. Oriented north to south, it was parallel to an ­unpaved county road and screened by a line of trees. By the other side of the strip to the east was a small crescent-shaped lake. Pine woods surrounded both, cleared for a few […]

So there I was, wondering if the dark side of the moon was half this cold as I finished the preflight of my Cessna Caravan with the big FedEx logo painted on the side. It was winter in Bishop, California, on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which runs down the back […]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was a popular book in the ’70s, and though I’ve tried several times, I’ve never been able to penetrate more than a few dozen pages. That said, I’ve always been a proponent of keeping my rolling stock (on the ground and in the air) in good working order. Maybe […]

We all know that unannounced, catastrophic, mechanically caused engine failures — loss of power with no previous warning — are so unlikely you’re better off worrying about meteor strikes or an outbreak of bubonic plague. But engines continue to quit because, as Yogi Berra put it, “We make too many wrong mistakes.” A commitment to […]

Upon my return home from a trip to London and back, I reflected on a series of trials and tribulations. When I put on the fourth stripe 25 years ago, I perceived my primary function simply as the boss on the flight deck. The responsibility for safely operating an airliner rested directly on my shoulders. The […]

It was a perfect early summer day in Minnesota, warm and clear with a wisp of breeze, the sort of day that we northern fliers will be dreaming of when the snow flies — right about the time you’re reading this. I relaxed on our back deck, savoring my morning coffee and watching our dog, […]

“You can’t teach judgment.” “I’m afraid no amount of ‘risk management’ training is going to change your attitude.” These comments were in response to John’s May column, “Double Trouble at Denver.” John had revealed our incredible series of risk-management failures on a trip in the early ’70s — getting caught in a snowstorm in two separate airplanes […]

Although the term “precision approach” merely means that vertical guidance is included, it seems to imply that the approach ought to be executed with precision by both pilots and controllers. On a December evening in 2013, a Cessna 310 carrying a pilot, 60, and his two daughters, 17 and 20, crashed while executing a missed […]

The occasional audible swoosh of ice departing the propellers and the bang of that ice hitting the fuselage provided the only comforting moments of this flight. How did I get here? Countless times when growing up I would look up from the ground at an airplane flying overhead and wish I were up there. This […]