Pilot Proficiency

What makes an airplane climb? The answer might seem obvious, until you consider all the factors that allow us to gain altitude. The addition of engine power is the answer that probably popped into your head first. Yet in light GA airplanes, altitude gain can also be achieved by taking advantage of thermal updrafts, reducing […]

Winter storms approach southern California from the Gulf of Alaska, the low center descending off the Pacific coast and then swinging inland to spend itself in Arizona and New Mexico. When the low is abeam Los Angeles southwest winds race across the coastal plain, leap over the San Gabriel Mountains and tumble head over heels, […]

Around 1950 the Air Force decided it needed a new trainer airplane. As you know, the Beech T-34 was the winner. My story comes from one of the airplanes that did not win. The Temco T-35 Buckaroo was a spinoff of the Globe Swift. Saudi Arabia ordered about 15 of the T-35As, armed, to be […]

Editor’s note: Capt. Sullenberger contacted us after publication of this article to clarify that he did call “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday” immediately after birds struck his Airbus A320 on January 15, 2009, but his radio transmission was stepped on by a simultaneous call by the air traffic controller and so was never broadcast. The final NTSB […]

When flying IFR, one of the most important things is to know what your priority should be at any given time. Cockpit technology and autopilots today are highly sophisticated and can help you fly safer, but they won’t save you in every case. And while portable tablets have allowed pilots to carry much more information […]

During stall recovery training, fighting the urge to use the aileron to overcome a sudden wing drop can take forethought and even sheer will power on the part of the student pilot. In a true stall emergency, which can take us completely by surprise, picking up a dropping wing with the aileron can be an […]

Jack Knight’s was not a hero’s face. Neither rugged nor square-jawed, it was, rather, overly broad in the forehead and narrow in the chin, somewhat like Fred Astaire’s or the famous face on the bridge in the Edvard Munch painting called The Scream. But heroes are as heroes do. Knight was an airmail pilot at […]

The view is from on high. It is hard to believe you are even moving. The engines are so far behind you that they produce but a whisper. Richard Rolland sits to my right in the FO’s seat, flicking a few switches and acting all the while as if I’m doing the flying. We’re in […]

If you’ve been flying for a while and have flown with a few different people you are probably well aware that, in aviation as well as in many other facets of life, there are many ways to skin a cat. And so it is in the profession of flight instructing. For example, there are different […]

How my confreres come up with ideas for their columns I have no idea, but the process is probably more studied and logical than mine. This may seem oblique, but I’ve been thinking about propellers since recently deciding it was time to quit talking and take action. So I presented myself at ­”Mother’s,” a tattoo […]