Pilot Proficiency

As you start the roundout on final approach and begin to flare, visual cues become extremely important. Where exactly should you be looking as you bring the control wheel back and prepare to place the wheels just where you want them on the pavement (or the grass, if you’re really lucky)? To give you a […]

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 Laura Lyne, who has flown into DeKalb-Peachtree Airport in Atlanta in a Mooney, Cessna 210, Baron and Aero Commander. Here’s what she had to say about one of […]

You’ve no doubt heard and read a lot about 3-D printing in the last couple of years. Known as “additive manufacturing” in industrial-design circles, the process is used to produce three-dimensional solid objects of virtually any shape from a digital model fed into a special kind of printer. Several teams have already created 3-D printed […]

The 77-year-old, 8,000 hour pilot-owner of a Cessna 182, accompanied by his wife, flew from Anchorage to Juneau, Alaska, on a July afternoon. The couple was in the process of moving to Hoonah, about 31 nm west-southwest of Juneau; the ostensible purpose of this trip was to position the 182 there before the start of […]

Hold on. I know the title is trite. Your enthusiasm for reading further may be at a low point, but hang on for a minute. I mean to persuade you that this is something other than a cliched rehash of admonishments to stabilize your approach. It is hard to believe that, after flying continuously for […]

Detailed weather conditions at airports are easy to obtain through a metar, ATIS, AWOS or ASOS. Conditions such as winds, temperatures, cloud conditions and visibilities are measured by ground-based equipment and can be obtained through frequencies, phone numbers, iPad apps and some panel-mounted avionics. But weather conditions are harder to measure in the air. That’s […]

As we passed our first waypoint of 20 degrees longitude westbound over the North Atlantic, my copilot and I studied the TCAS symbol on the navigation display. Another airplane was approaching us from behind at the 5 o’clock position. Our 777 was cruising at FL 390. The other airplane was 1,000 feet below at FL […]

Sarah Yensen and Ted Lester, pilots who have been dating for several years and who have flown together to Oshkosh from the Boston area six different times, recently had what Yensen described as an “in-flight incident” for which she determined there was no checklist. Yensen, who works at Lincoln Labs, and Lester, who works at […]

The following is an excerpt from official NTSB summaries of general aviation accidents in the United States. _ _ NTSB investigators either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report. Cessna 172R Wendover, […]

Complacency is one of the biggest enemies pilots face. As we go about our business accomplishing flight-related tasks, over time they can become rote actions performed without the necessary forethought to ensure we’re not acting out of habit. The NTSB is warning pilots of several recent incidents where pilots pulled a lever or hit a […]