Pilot Proficiency

When flying in busy airspace, frequency changes can happen often, sometimes every few minutes. It is good practice to write down each frequency in case you need to reference it later. The past frequencies may be helpful if for some reason you can’t reach the next controller or, more importantly, if you have a comm […]

The owner of the float-equipped Maule saw it crash. He was there to watch as his friend and a passenger arrived in the airplane. “I witnessed the airplane fly over the field,” he wrote, “and enter a downwind for a landing on Runway 4. As the plane turned from base to final, it banked at […]

With apologies to our vegan readers, we present the most delicious flight plan ever, with waypoints carefully chosen not necessarily to give the best routing but to offer the best life advice, in our humble opinions, that is. The picture was snapped in flight by Cirrus rep Ivy McIvers, who presumably hadn’t had any part […]

I’ve watched “TWA Flight 800” — the much-hyped Epix original documentary that purports to present “new” evidence proving that a missile attack brought down the Paris-bound Boeing 747 over the Atlantic 17 years ago this month. Yesterday I interviewed Hank Hughes, a former NTSB investigator who was involved in the TWA 800 investigation. Here is […]

After our piece last week on the risky nature of airshow flying and the challenging process of improving safety given all the variables (“Airshow Crashes: The Cost of Doing Business? Going Direct, by Robert Goyer), we received a number of emails from our readers, one of whom is John Cudahy, the president of the International […]

My family has owned a 1931 Buhl Bull Pup single-place, open-cockpit “flying bathtub” since 1969. I was 16 when I won the youngest-pilot award at Merced’s Antique Fly-In in 1970. I’ve been flying this little antique airplane all my life. A few weekends ago, I came as close as you can to rolling it (and […]

A huge number of portable ADS-B receivers has hit the market in the last couple of years, giving pilots instant access to traffic and weather information on their iPad or Android tablets. Weather is broadcast continuously so there isn’t much mystery there. But traffic data is somewhat limited. This can make ADS-B confusing as pilots […]

Each year aviation enthusiasts and avgeeks alike look forward to AirVenture in Oshkosh, America’s largest annual gathering, and this July and August look to be shaping up for another great show. From a sneak peek of Disney’s new animated feature _Planes ___to a first public U.S. flight by Yves “Jetman” Rossy and musical performances by […]

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 Gary Peek, who recently flew into St. Charles County Smartt Airport in St. Charles, Missouri, in a Cessna 182. Here’s what he had to say about one of […]

Eugene Corbett Patterson died last January. You may have a flicker of name recognition, as his obituary was in almost every newspaper in the country. The New York Times announced his death on the front page and devoted considerable space to this farm boy, soldier, scholar, journalist and editor. To me, he was the best […]