Pilot Proficiency

“The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was Scaled Composites’ failure to consider and protect against the possibility that a single human error could result in a catastrophic hazard to the SpaceShipTwo vehicle. This failure set the stage for the copilot’s premature unlocking of the feather system as a […]

Sometime late this afternoon, I’ll get an email telling me about tomorrow. I keep a close eye on my phone, as this will be my first rotation as captain. I hope I get paired with a strong first officer. Upgrading to captain has come just two years after the official start of my career as […]

Iliamna is a great fly-in fishing destination in southwestern Alaska. In early summer, however, it often has rain, with low ceilings and visibilities. The day of this flight was no exception. As we prepared for our IFR departure, the mountains all around were in the clouds. There is no radar at the airport, and missing […]

As a pilot you most certainly know that just about everything in aviation has a checklist. We controllers have our own checklists for a multitude of hazardous situations, unauthorized laser illumination included. I pulled up the appropriate checklist while the helo maneuvered.

Recently, a friend who flies out of Houston Hobby (KHOU) shared something thats bothered him for some time. Just seven miles east of Hobby is Ellington Field (KEFD), a joint-use military/civilian airport. Both airports issue TAFs. Hobbys TAFs come from the NWS and Ellingtons are issued by the military. Interestingly, sometimes there is a great disparity between the forecasts. Do they each have their own biases? Are they looking through different glasses? Its like asking two witnesses what they see in an accident that hasnt happened yet.

It’s easy to forget one of the reasons I became an airline pilot in this age of aviation technology that includes FMS, RVSM, ADS-B, RNAV/RNP, ACARS, VNAV and CAT III, plus the effects of 9/11, bankruptcy, retirement plan terminations, contentious contract negotiations and the normal stresses of a professional aviation career. Not that I completely […]

“This is 176, we’re coming in over Cape Cod descending, we have a magnetic chip detector light, we’d like to declare an emergency — and we’re heading for home plate.” It was August 1978. One seventy-six was a Grumman US-2B Tracker, a Navy utility plane nicknamed “Stoof” from the type designation of one common model, […]

As a relative newbie to flying in “weather,” I am impressed when I fly along VFR with more seasoned pilots in haze that would scare me if I were alone. “It’s just haze, with a good 5 miles of visibility,” I am often told. But looking straight ahead through 10 miles of mild haze is […]

When starting a rotation as a Part 135 pilot on the Cessna CJ3, I really have no idea what’s coming up. I might spend eight days shuttling around the Northeast or I might cross the country three or four times. A recent trip touched all the bases when it comes to the fanciful and the […]

I scanned the bid sheet, expecting to find the usual potpourri of trips. London. Rio. Buenos Aires. São Paulo. But wait, what’s this? Milan? Hmm … I could do for a change of scenery. In addition, a month of Milan trips would add a little extra in the paycheck because of the longer flying time […]