Pilot Proficiency

A new site simply called “Wind Map” has taken the invisible and made it really easy to see. The brainchild of Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg, the wind map isn’t intended for pilots. In fact, they say in a cute disclaimer, “Please do not use the map or its data to fly a plane, sail […]

If you’re planning a trip that is too far to take in your personal airplane and you want to avoid the airlines, you can quickly connect with charter operators through a new company called PlaneFinder. You simply go online to request a charter flight by entering the departure and arrival airports, the number of passengers […]

Have you ever advanced the power, gathered momentum on the runway and pulled back on the yoke or stick at the appropriate airspeed – only to be greeted by a shaking in the controls as you lift off that makes your mind start thinking about pre-stall buffets, your uncomfortably high angle of attack and proximity […]

While details of the F/A-18 crash in Virginia Beach, Virginia are still murky, as always there is something to learn from an accident. In this case, we should all think about how current we are with emergency procedures. Military pilots spend countless hours training in simulators and airplanes for events that likely will never happen […]

When First Landings, the flight school where I did my Sport Pilot training, announced it was organizing a North Carolina “adventure flight,” I was intrigued. The plan was for a group of us to depart early one Friday morning in April from Apopka, Florida’s X04 for a long weekend of hiking and whitewater rafting in […]

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that crosswind technique begins on the ground. Taxiing can definitely be a challenge in itself. If you’re taxiing into a quartering headwind, turn the controls into the wind for full aileron deflection. Conversely, with a quartering tailwind, you’ll want to turn away from the direction the wind is coming […]

As we all know, general aviation covers a wide range of aircraft types, from Cessna Skycatchers and Robinson R22s to Gulfstream G650s and Sikorsky S92s and everything in between. Whether it’s a vintage Cherokee flying 40 hours a year or a shiny new King Air flying 400, if it’s privately owned and flown for business […]

I have before me a bound volume containing a year’s worth of Flying, a gift from an old friend and collaborator, pilot and photographer Baron Wolman, who picked it up at a swap meet for $4. The year, 1916, will surprise anyone who knows that our esteemed publication first appeared, under the name of Popular […]

Learning how to land in a crosswind is one of those skills that’s hard to teach on a schedule, since you never know when the sideways winds will blow. With Redbird Flight Simulation‘s XWind ($27,900) and XWind SE ($29,900) crosswind trainers, however, instructors can schedule crosswind training to fit the student’s schedule. The two trainers […]

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 Jared Heiner, who recently visited Kemp Jet Services at Ogden-Hinckley Airport in a Cessna Cardinal 177RG. Here’s what he has to say about the experience. Kemp Jet Services […]