Pilot Proficiency

While the weather data that we can now collect live in the cockpit on our avionics suites or on a portable tablet is fairly well updated and accurate, there is some weather information that can only be delivered by a human inside a cockpit. Critical information, such as cloud tops, cloud layers, turbulence and icing […]

Regulations are often vague, occasionally on purpose. What do you need to log instrument experience in an airplane? The rules state the tasks must be performed in actual weather conditions, or under simulated conditions using a view-limiting device. I get a kick out of the wording, when are you not flying in actual weather, whether VMC or IMC?

Every year structural icing claims a small but steady number of airplanes. Many of the accidents are on approach in clear air-after the airplane has already collected a load of ice. We look at it afterwards and wonder-the airplane had been doing fine-why did it crash well after it escaped from icing conditions?

Next to poor visibility and low ceilings, ice is one of winters most common weather hazards. A recent study of icing accidents showed that 71 percent of the pilots were instrument rated, averaged 2000 hours, and over half of the flights received a proper icing forecast. This strongly suggests that ice is not well understood or is ignored.

Lately I’ve grown convinced that it’s only a matter of time before a rogue quadracopter collides with an airplane or helicopter in flight, possibly sending innocent victims plummeting to their deaths. For a few brief moments last month, I worried I might be among the first casualties. Knowing what I do now, I probably should […]

If you haven’t checked out the new interactive Flight Path Tool at the Aviation Weather Center on aviationweather.gov, you owe it to yourself to have a look. Representatives from Jeppesen provided a great overview of the FPT at the recent Flying Aviation Expo in Palm Springs, California, during a series of well-attended IFR pilot proficiency […]

The ready availability of small, light video cameras has produced an outburst of visual autobiography. Hardly anyone seems to be able to resist the temptation to strap a camera to his head and do something that he, or someone else, may later find exciting or impressive. Skiers, skateboarders and sky divers are particularly enamored of […]

Through the magic of the Internet, I learned an important lesson recently about a flight that I piloted 40 years ago this month. I was a lucky kid who grew up around small airplanes. My father, a physician, had a 90 hp Cub on floats that he kept on the St. Lawrence River in front […]

Why is it when youre trying to do something good, the weather always turns bad? Todays mission is a Patient Airlift Services (PALS) flight from Montpelier, Vermont to Boston, Massachusetts. Your quick hop from your home base in Burlington, Vermont already gave you a decent instrument warm-up.

Fall conjures memories of bright blue skies, cool mornings and generally good daytime flying. But in aviation, looks can be deceiving. New air masses are on the move, the jet stream begins to flex its muscle over much of the United States, fronts are marching southward, and theres likely a tropical storm in the Caribbean or the Gulf. How does this affect your flying and how can you avoid an unplanned turn of events?