Pilot Proficiency

We all know that as density altitude increases, there is a corresponding decrease in the power delivered by our airplane’s engine and the effectiveness of our propeller. For a typical non-turbocharged light single-engine airplane, this can result in a takeoff roll that’s 25 percent longer for every 1,000 feet of elevation above sea level. The […]

Don’t drop the airplane to fly the microphone.

The takeoff is the only maneuver in flying that gives a pilot unlimited time to plan.

Radar, whether we’re talking air traffic control, thunderstorm detection, navigation, or even air combat, is a technology that has shaped the history of flight in countless ways. The word “radar” is an acronym (RAdio Detection And Ranging) and was coined in 1939 by the United States Army Signal Corps as it worked on these systems […]

As time goes on, most memories of the past take on a glow that wasn’t experienced in real time. A flight full of frustrations becomes a triumph of perseverance and skill when viewed in hindsight. I’m beginning to think that my early flight training is so sepia-colored by now that I have a hard time […]

How many times have you heard a report like this? “Podunk Municipal airport, automated weather observation, 2347 Zulu. Weather, wind 050 at 12 knots, gust 23 knots. Visibility 7. Sky condition, clear below 12,000 feet. Temperature 29 Celsius, dew point 17 Celsius. Altimeter 30.00 inches of mercury. Remarks, intensive glider activity 20 miles north east […]

Finding an alternative term for this imprecise aerodynamic one.

A certain amount of an airline pilot’s life is given over to marking time on and around airports, and that is doubly true of the junior captain on reserve. I am currently ensconced in the midcentury-modern environs of the TWA Hotel, built around Eero Saarinen’s soaring TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport. […]

Which is safer, a 10,000-hour pilot who has flown only 20 hours in the last year or a 200-hour pilot who has flown frequently in the last month?

I caught the coronavirus this past October on a commercial flight returning home from Denver. My aisle seat was toward the back of the sold-out flight with an airline that refused to keep middle seats open. By hour two of the flight, there was a line for the bathroom. All those people standing over me, […]