Pilot Proficiency

The trend among aviation educators to ingrain in students the importance of keeping their eyes looking outside the cockpit is excellent counsel in an increasingly digital world. But an equally important piece of the safety puzzle is to use everything in our arsenal, from our eyes to our ears to the avionics in the panel, […]

In 1973, the end of American involvement in the Vietnam War signaled the end of the draft. A few months prior to leaving for college in 1975, the Selective Service System no longer required me to register. It wasn’t long thereafter that the Air Force dramatically reduced its demand for pilots. My secondary alternate status […]

To say that electrical systems are not my strong point is something of an understatement. The reality is I don’t actually believe in electricity, and although I’ve spent a lifetime regurgitating answers to questions on oral and written tests about amps and volts and ohms and AC and DC current and inverters and buses and […]

My first year of membership in DiamondShare is almost over. And as the end of my one-year lease approaches, I have an important choice to make: stick with the shared-lease program or find some other way to fly. My introduction to the DiamondShare experience was somewhat unusual in that I was handed the keys to […]

When planning a flight, pilots are trained to prepare for contingencies; minor problems and emergencies will arise at some point throughout every one of our flying careers. We taxi slow enough in case we experience a brake failure. In a single-engine airplane we choose a route of flight from point A to B that will […]

The FAA puts great emphasis on the use of checklists, so much so that failing to use them during a checkride will result in a pink slip. While you should always have a checklist within reach to back you up, there is another easy way to make sure you are not missing any critical items […]

Now that the world knows the story of the Boeing 747 Dreamlifter that landed at the wrong Wichita-area airport on Wednesday night, everybody is asking the same question: how could it have happened? That is, how could a professional crew of a large cargo airliner get it so wrong? The answer is, it’s all too […]

The odd case of a Boeing 747 Dreamlifter mistakenly landing at Wichita’s Jabara Airport instead of its intended destination, McConnell Air Force Base about 7 miles to the south, wasn’t the first time the crew of a mammoth jet made such a colossal positional error. You might remember our story last year about a C-17 […]

Once upon a time, I lusted after owning a jet. I played the lottery in the hopes of winning enough money to own and support one. One time, I even put a down payment on a Cessna Citation Mustang. This was before I checked my net worth or calculated any realistic hopes for my net […]

A majority of pilots today have strayed from paper charts, making approach chart updates a breeze compared with the tedious paper chart replacement, which could take hours if you fly regularly in multiple states. While electronic data is much easier to update, you have to be vigilant to ensure that you have the most current […]