Pilot Proficiency

The FAA’s recent announcement that it is going to make the installation of angle-of-attack indicators in light general aviation airplanes as easy as possible is an incredible development. Why would the FAA reduce the certification barriers of a flight-critical instrumentation system? The answer is simple: AOA indicators are long overdue in general aviation airplanes, and […]

For many pilots, the thought of stepping out of the house, getting into an airplane and taxiing just a few hundred feet to the runway — all without ever touching a car door — is the ultimate fantasy. For the thousands who live in residential airparks around the country, that way of life isn’t just […]

Illustrations by Matthew Laznicka| Clayton, New Mexico — way east of the Rocky Mountains, out on the Great Plains. A humid June afternoon. We had finished up in court and were sitting around in the judge’s office. The phone rang. The judge handed it to me. My friend, the airport weather forecaster, spoke abruptly: “Margaret, […]

Every pilot knows that flying is an intense mixture of uncommon rewards offset with exposure to risk. After all, while airplanes provide some of the greatest pleasures in our lifetimes, they do have to reach a lethal speed just to get airborne and then fly at thousands of feet above the ground. Balancing the risk/reward […]

Flying with friends and fellow pilots can be the best times, but it also has the potential to turn into a nightmare. This can happen when the person beside or behind you becomes a backseat flier. While it is important to speak up in cases that could turn into safety or legal issues, constant reminders […]

We’ve recently had a Tanis engine preheater installed in our Diamond DA40 to deal with the ill effects of the arctic polar vortex blast — words that should never follow each other in a single sentence, in my opinion. The preheater is designed to keep the cylinders warmed to a temperature 70 degrees above ambient […]

In our FBO Spotlight series, we’re highlighting FBOs around the country that have received rave reviews from our readers. This latest Spotlight is brought to you by Vincent Latona, who has recently flown into Scottsdale Airport in Scottsdale, Arizona, in a TBM 850. Here’s what he had to say about one of the airport’s FBOs, […]

What does it take to build the coolest airplane ever? In the case of college student Luca Iaconi-Stewart’s creation — which definitely gets our vote for most spectacular paper airplane — the answer to that question is five years of effort and an abundance of glue and manila cardboard folders. The 22-year-old constructed this incredible […]

You’ve probably noticed that test pilots, law enforcement and emergency response pilots, and pilots flying military airplanes generally wear flight suits. You are also likely aware that these pilots don’t wear these garments just to fit into some kind of fraternity or to look cool. Flight suits serve a purpose. While you may not want […]

A few years back, a Cessna 172 pilot had trouble starting his airplane and decided to hand-prop it near the Typhoon restaurant at the Santa Monica airport. No one was inside the Skyhawk. The engine spun up, and the airplane made a solo trip across runway 21. In the process, it made a business jet […]