Pilot Proficiency

Most people don’t like to admit that they have dug themselves into a hole and need help to extricate themselves from their predicament. This is evident in the common tendency people have to minimize their problems when communicating with others, and has led to many adverse outcomes because people who could have helped did not […]

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 Roy Brewer, who recently flew into Blue Ridge Regional Airport in a Rockwell Commander 114. Here’s what he has to say about the airport’s FBO. FBO Spotlight: Blue […]

Recently, I was reminded about that “thing” about flying when Bonnier Corp.’s Flying magazine and Jack Brown’s Seaplane Base in Winter Haven, Florida, hosted 12 folks visiting from the Bonnier parent company’s headquarters in Sweden as part of a Live the Brand event. Flying offered up two choices: discovery flights in Cessnas or discovery flights […]

Warn the neighbors and anybody else who will listen: The FAA and FBI are cracking down on people who intentionally point laser lights at aircraft in flight, launching dozens of investigations and charging nearly 30 alleged perpetrators since stepping up enforcement last summer. A new law enacted in February makes doing so a federal crime […]

One of the best lessons I ever received from my flight instructor was a lesson of disorientation. It was fairly early in my flight training. We took off from Santa Monica airport one late afternoon in the early summer. The weather was perfectly clear with light winds, but there was a thick marine layer slightly […]

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 Mike Woods, who recently flew into Denton Municipal Airport in a C55 Baron. Here’s what he has to say about one of the airport’s FBOs, US Aviation. US […]

The accident statistics prove it: The base-to-final turn continues to be one of the big killers in general aviation. Most often, troubles arise when a pilot realizes too late that he is overshooting the runway and so tightens the turn while simultaneously hauling back on the yoke. That’s a recipe for a rarely survivable stall-spin […]

As I have reported before, the City of Santa Monica is going through a three-step airport community process, also called the visioning process, to help determine what the future holds for the Santa Monica Airport (SMO). Phase II of the process, in which community members were given an opportunity to put in their vision for […]

I was up at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, the other week listening to the curator of the place, a very interesting gentleman named Stewart Bailey, talking with wonder about his boss, the octogenarian owner and founder of Evergreen Airlines, Del Smith. Smith, like many great achievers in aviation, has contributed […]

The story is a cliché: Pilot moves from “those who will” to “those who have” landed gear-up, despite his protestations in the past. Different day, airplane, pilot — actually two pilots, but the story is, in so many ways, always the same, but different too, and so worth telling — and there’s another lesson for […]