Pilot Proficiency

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, […]

Some pilots flying today might think of “the old days” as 10 years ago when they took their flying lessons in an airplane with analog instrument gauges. Those who earned an instrument rating around that time may remember the VOR system because aircraft were usually equipped with one—if not two—of these indicators. Today, with the […]

“What’s it doing now?” If you haven’t said or thought it in the cockpit, you’ve almost certainly heard it from someone else. The question often has to do with new technology in the cockpit or automation not doing what you think it should. With more and more advanced systems—particularly with regards to navigation—expectation bias is […]

Garmin Aviation has debuted its latest weather radar system, the GWX 8000 StormOptix, with the aim to reduce pilot workload further during the demanding periods in flight when they must negotiate severe weather aloft. The system, which is directed first as a replacement unit for the radar systems integrated with the Garmin G5000 flight deck, […]

When you can say, “Been there, done that!”