Pilot Proficiency

A pilot recently posted a video on YouTube and suggested his fellow aviators have a look. He was showing off his new GoPro camera setup in a Cessna 172. As the video starts, the first thing the viewer sees is the pilot taxiing toward the departure runway while simultaneously texting on his smartphone. The airplane […]

For more than 50 years of jet airliner operation, the APU has been an integral part of airplane independence. The APU is a small jet engine located within the structure of the fuselage. With today’s airliners, the unit is operable both on the ground and in flight. In flight, the APU provides both a backup […]

The creators of the popular animated Disney movie Cars are about to release a new animated feature called Planes. Set to open in the theatres on August 9, Planes follows Dusty the crop duster as he tackles his fear of heights to achieve his dream of becoming an air racer. A wide variety of animated […]

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 Scott Sedam, who recently flew into Sawyer International Airport in Marquette, Michigan, in a Commander 114. Here’s what he had to say about the airport’s FBO, Boreal Aviation: […]

Ensuring that you are carrying enough fuel to complete your planned flight is not the only fuel-related concern that you should keep in mind as you fly. While a fuel imbalance may not cause you to make an emergency landing, it could mean the difference between having a nice smooth touchdown and potentially causing some […]

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 Phil Rutherford, who recently flew into Front Range Airport in Denver in a Cessna 140. Here’s what he had to say about the airport’s FBO: “[Front Range provides] […]

The FAA’s handling of a variety of prickly issues from the planned closures of scores of contract control towers to the hotly anticipated Part 23 rewrite to the up-in-the-air fate of leaded aviation gasoline will affect general aviation in important ways for years to come. Get the Part 23 rewrite right, and we could witness […]

An incensed reader, reacting to my parenthetical remark “Making Range,” Technicalities, August 2012 that, contrary to widespread belief, a leaner-than-peak-EGT mixture reduces cylinder head temperatures, wrote: _Maybe I am missing something, but it is against the laws of physics that a leaner mixture can run cooler, as the more dense the mixture, the cooler the […]

If you fly IFR in busy parts of the country where direct routings are rare, knowing what routes ATC is likely to give you can be a big time saver. You can look up the preferred ATC routings between airport pairs online to get a good idea of what you should file. My favorite site […]

All pilots must eat. Learjet pilots on an overnight have to eat. Due to unusual circumstances, I’ve participated in a variety of eating experiences while flying trips as a backup first officer in a Lear 31A for Elite Air of St. Petersburg, Florida. I say unusual because I am not your usual first officer. My […]