Pilot Proficiency

Excitement is in the air. We just left Fort Pierce, Florida. Rather than heading to a tame destination like Key West, were pointed southeast-open ocean ahead. Our friend Dave, a constant source of bizarre travel ideas, suggested we visit Pig Beach. Wild pigs supposedly enjoy this spot in the Bahamas, living a life of swimming, sun tanning, and getting dinner from passing tourists.

As a result of the speculative theories regarding the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370, the subject of cameras and streaming data from the cockpit has been re-energized. But why? And for what purpose? The obvious answer is to monitor cockpit activities in the event a situation arises. But what kind of situation? A terrorist event? […]

Sunshine! It feels so foreign, so exotic, and so wonderful! I know that you are comfortably ensconced in the warm embrace of summer, but back here in late April, the upper Midwest is just now escaping the clutches of a memorably brutal winter. My home airport, Airlake, is bursting to life from its sleepy state […]

If you are ready to deal with the answer, here’s something you can try the next time you are in a room full of pilots. Ask them to hold up their hands if the answer to this question for them is “yes.” “How many here knew someone personally who was killed in an aircraft accident?” […]

CNN owned the coverage of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 this past spring with its wall-to-wall commentary from experts like our own Contributing Editor Les Abend, a highly experienced Boeing 777 captain, and Editor-in-Chief Robert Goyer, but rival cable channel Fox News has a potent new weapon in its arsenal for covering aviation […]

The FAA’s decision to ban Internet ride-sharing websites like AirPooler and Flytenow is hardly surprising given the Department of Transportation’s tight restrictions on “holding out” for air transportation services. As a private pilot you can accept money to fly your friends to Spokane for a wedding you’re all attending, but if you advertise that same […]

It’s a beautiful day and you’re enjoying the view from your cockpit. There is not a burble of turbulence in the air and you have a 15-knot tailwind pushing you along. So far it’s a perfect flight. But suddenly you smell smoke in the cockpit. You look around trying to determine where the smell is […]

The fire season is upon us and, with severe drought conditions in some parts of the country, it has the potential to be an ugly one. If you’re planning on flying in the late summer and early fall, before any regular precipitation starts to fall, you need to be aware of the fire potential and […]

Twenty years ago, the idea of carrying sophisticated digital radar in anything under a medium twin would probably have been met with roars of laughter, but technology has brought amazing advances. Now its possible for even an ultralight pilot to use the Internet to access essentially the same tools that are available to forecasters.

Two business associates and I were on the second leg of a three-leg business trip that would carry us from Chino, California, to Las Cruces, New Mexico, to Boulder, Colorado, and then back home. The first leg was one I had made on numerous occasions because my company had several customers in the New Mexico […]