Pilot Proficiency

A few days ago, a tiny wren built an elaborate nest inside my hockey equipment bag. She worked fast, completing construction within a time frame of about an hour and a half. The bag was hanging on our garage wall, and the nest consisted of a collection of leaves and twigs interwoven with one of […]

With the coming of GPS, my home base, Somerset Airport (SMQ) in New Jersey, now has three instrument approaches. Not bad for a field with one paved 2,700-foot runway and a pair of grass strips. The legacy approach is a VOR non-precision procedure using the Solberg VOR, 4.2 nautical miles away. It’s a bit unusual […]

I worked as the graduate placement officer at an A&P school many years ago. The students would perform the annual inspections on my little Grumman Yankee; under the supervision of their properly licensed instructors, of course. Like now, general aviation was in a down cycle, and I remember nervously addressing the graduating class, explaining how […]

As the February 1 deadline for satellite surveillance of 121.5 MHz came and went, I admit I was relieved that I was not required to switch to a new 406 MHz ELT. But after reading John Collins’ “Avionics” column in the April issue of the American Bonanza Society magazine, I’m tempted to spring for one […]

There’s great temptation during your aircraft’s annual inspection to take a long vacation and leave the cell phone turned off. What you don’t know won’t hurt you — until you get the bill. Another way is to embrace the maintenance process. Not that you need to actually dip into the elbow grease (though some do), […]

The importance of careful flight planning is drummed into our heads from our first flight. The very first regulation in FAR 91, Subpart B, on Flight Rules (91.103) states that “each pilot in command shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight.” It then continues with a list of […]

When we decided to include a weekly Flying Tip in every Flying eNewsletter, Editor-in-Chief Mac McClellan pointed out that FAA accident/incident reports almost always include one or more gear-up landings every week. His advice to me was, “Every week, tell ’em to remember to put the gear down.” Well, here we are with Flying Tip […]

Samuel Hynes flew Grumman TBM ‘Avenger’ torpedo bombers with the Marines in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he became a literature professor, ultimately teaching at Princeton. At one point in the early 1950s, he lived upstairs from my parents in a small apartment in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. [My mother said he sort […]

Every spring the FAA accident records are littered with a few reports of runaway aircraft — the result of hand propping gone awry. Usually, no one is injured. But innocent aircraft parked nearby are often victimized. In some cases, the errant aircraft will actually take off and fly around until it runs out of fuel […]

The safety level for professional flight operations goes up several notches with a two-pilot crew. I don’t think that’s just because the workload is so great that two are needed. But rather, I believe the second person in the pointy end serves as a second pair of eyes — not just to watch for traffic, […]