Pilot Proficiency

There’s no question the financial crisis has hammered business aviation in the last 36 months as the economic downturn and an associated undercurrent of negative public scrutiny have combined to plunge the industry into the worst decline in its 65-year history. Still, while it’s tempting to draw colorful conclusions from piles of raw data that […]

Wow, what an eye opener! Last night I completed 1.4 hours of my 3-hour night flight-training requirement for the private certificate, single-engine rating, with First Landings Aviation CFI Chris Esposito. I shot 8 full-stop landings in the Remos GX, leaving the last two of the 10 required for my dual cross-country night flight. All I […]

(November 2011) Federal aviation regulations have not changed, but the procedures the FAA uses to evaluate and certify pilots with alcohol and drug issues, and those on certain antidepressant medications, have changed substantially in the past three years. Pilots with such issues are unpleasantly surprised when confronted by FAA procedures and probably would have chosen […]

In our FBO Spotlight series, we’re highlighting FBOs around the country that have received rave reviews from our readers. The latest Spotlight is brought to you by Clyde Davis, who recently flew into Abilene Regional Airport in a Piper Comanche PA-24. Here’s his thoughts on why the airport’s FBO, Abilene Aero, is as good as […]

None of the pilots I’ve talked to were surprised by Garmin’s decision to discontinue production of its ubiquitous GNS 530W and GNS 430W all-in-one GPS/navcoms (production of the 530 ends this month and the 430 sometime next year). Really, who could be? These hugely successful units have been in production for well over a decade. […]

(November 2011) I remember from my college classes about slippery slope arguments, the idea being that they unfairly presume that one undesirable outcome of a new policy invariably would lead to another even more undesirable outcome, which would then lead to even worse ones until the momentum was unstoppable and all hell would break loose. […]

Oxygen use is one of many factors in aviation where it’s a good idea to set your own limits, which should also be much lower than those required by the FAA. Legal requirements for oxygen aren’t applicable until you fly above 12,500 feet, but in some cases you may want to start inhaling supplemental oxygen […]

Laser pointers are fun, aren’t they? We’ve all held or at least seen these pen-sized gadgets. They’re useful for highlighting particularly interesting parts of PowerPoint slides or mounting to rifles and pistols for improved long-distance targeting. I personally am guilty of making cats do burnouts across the kitchen floor with a red laser pen. When […]

(October 2011) Air France 447 went down in the mid-Atlantic in 2009 because all three of its pitot tubes iced up. Well, not exactly. It wasn’t the loss of functioning pitot tubes that doomed the airplane; it was what the A330’s autopilot, and human pilots, did next. The autopilot — but it would be more […]

(October 2011) We are all familiar with the adage “To err is human.” This means that if you are human, you should accept the fact that from time to time you will make errors. Left unabated, many of these errors will be trivial and the outcomes insignificant. But in the operation of an aircraft, the […]