Pilot Proficiency

Now that we’re staring at the weather picture from the depths of winter, perhaps you’ve been re-acquainted with how fronts make an impact on the weather. Fronts truly form one of the building blocks of meteorology. In the Air Force forecasting school I attended years ago, fronts were the very first topic that followed the […]

You’re flying along, listening to a controller issue instructions to many aircraft. From one second to the next, you suddenly start hearing a different controller’s voice. You haven’t changed frequencies. They’re seemingly picking up where the first one left off. Controllers are used to hearing voice changes from an aircraft. Many times a day, I’ll […]

Thinking about taking the plunge can bring on a range of emotions, but there’s work to do before you actually jump in.

Formation-flight tragedy in California accentuates the importance of airside discipline.

A common thought is that deploying wing flaps will improve climb rate. But is it true?

Arguably one of the most stunning lakes in the United States, Lake Tahoe sits at a relatively high elevation surrounded by even loftier mountains. This can make flying an approach to South Lake Tahoe, California, something that requires a little more attention than your average approach, especially if you are going to be using the […]

Pilots based on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado know that the winter brings on the mountain wave. What they don’t expect in winter? For that wave to feed a storm of flames on the ground. On Thursday afternoon, a grass fire likely sparked by downed power lines around Marshall was stoked into […]

A pilot has to decide on the runway not to take off, and reflects on how things differed when he worked for an airline.

A faulty glideslope connection fools a pilot into following the instrument’s needle almost into the ground.

A seemingly easy flight from Charlottesville to Tampa proves that there’s no such thing as an easy flight.