Pilot Proficiency

A scary incident at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh yesterday highlights the need for quick thinking when the unexpected happens. First, here’s the story: The pilot of a Van’s RV set up for a nicely stabilized approach to Runway 9 and made a decent landing – the only problem was that the wind was out of the […]

Flying into new airports VFR can be a challenge, particularly in busy environments. It is likely that the approach and tower controllers will use VFR waypoints that you are not familiar with. But with some research you can prevent having to ask for vectors or specific instructions, which can be frustrating for the controllers and […]

An excerpt from “One of the Trusted” by Gill Robb Wilson: _You look down at your _ hands on the wheel. They are veined and hard and brown. Tonight you notice they look a little old. _And, by George, they are old. _ But how can this be? _Only yesterday you _ were in flying […]

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 Susan Wellman, who recently flew into Fulton County Airport-Brown Field in Atlanta in a Carbon Cub. Here’s what she had to say about ones of the airport’s FBOs, […]

Much has been said and written about the FAA’s plans to overhaul the decades-old regulations governing the certification of Part 23 airplanes. The new regulations, we are told, will cut certification costs in half. These savings will be passed along to consumers – that is, us pilots. Congress likes the idea so much that it […]

Do you consider yourself mentally healthy? At least, for a pilot? The FAA is asking for volunteer GA pilots for confidential testing of cognitive skills during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. The purpose is to establish baseline readings of brain-function data among healthy pilots so the agency can evaluate those recovering from brain injuries. The FAA assures […]

“Whoa! Stop. You would not do that to your lawn mower.” I hear this over the din of the engine and next feel a firm left hand atop my sweating right hand. The left hand slowly pulls my tightly clenched right hand and the throttle on the Cessna 150 toward the idle position. As opposed […]

We all know that the Nexrad weather graphics we see on our multifunction displays can be dangerously outdated, showing the location of storms not where they are now but where they were many minutes ago. But did you know that the precipitation data displayed on ARTCC radar scopes suffers from a similar lag? Maybe you […]

Last summer, my wife and I wanted to visit the Brooks Range in August to hunt Dall sheep. For those not familiar with it, the Brooks Range is a mountain range stretching about 700 miles from western Alaska across the state east to Canada’s Yukon Territory. From where we live in South Central Alaska, it […]

Multitasking is accepted as a given in our modern technology-driven society. Anyone with a teenager has shaken his head at the sight of his child doing homework while listening to music at a loud volume through earphones, and at the same time carrying on multiple texting conversations and surfing the Internet. While a multicore computer […]