Pilot Proficiency

“That’s what notams are. They are just a bunch of garbage that nobody pays any attention to.” It would be a dramatic statement regardless of who said it. But this was Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, speaking at a hearing. Sumwalt had reason to be upset. An Air Canada jetliner had […]

It is said that a second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience. The same might be said of a second attempt at buying a jet just a few months after having suffered a painful breakup. Things are surely different the second time around. My first jet-buying experience was mostly characterized by lust. I […]

The 225-hour commercial pilot, 55, had built his JD-2 Dyke Delta in St. Louis and, after several test flights there, took it to Safford, Arizona. Originally intended as a roadable aircraft, the JD-2 had folding wings and sufficiently springy main gear and large tires to allow it to be towed behind a car. It made […]

Sporty’s has announced a schedule of free, interactive, educational webinars on a variety of useful aviation topics scheduled throughout the year. Attendees of the live events must register and the webinars are available online through GoToWebinar. Past webinars from Sporty’s are available through the company’s Youtube channel on topics such as ADS-B; weather strategies; flight […]

The ASOS system was developed in the late 1980s to relieve the expense of maintaining human observers at hundreds of sites, improve consistency of observations, and bring high-quality observations to rural and remote airports. Much like NEXRAD it was a joint product of the FAA, NWS, and DoD, and was fielded at 1000 US airports between 1991 and 2004. Its main components are temperature, dewpoint, and wind sensors, along with new technology like sky condition, present weather, and visibility sensors.

If you are one of many pilots thoroughly confused by the process of deciphering weather data prior to a flight, one of the most important components of a preflight, here is one way to bring some clarity. AvWx Workshops is offering one-on-one training that breaks down the gathering and deciphering of weather information through PowerPoint […]

When Cirrus aircraft began entering the market around the turn of this century, some pundits were certain the new-age, glass-cockpit airplane was just what the industry needed to improve the single-engine safety record. As it turned out, the first decade or so of Cirrus operations were marred by more than a few fatal accidents, despite […]

Ahead of next month’s release by the NTSB of its Most Wanted List of safety priorities, the Aviation Safety Network published its 2018 statistics that showed 15 fatal airliner accidents, that resulted in 556 fatalities. “Despite several high-profile accidents, 2018 was one of the safest years ever for commercial aviation.” ASN said last year was […]

Jeppesen’s Aviator app takes a simple idea and expands it to airliner cockpits, where iPads and other tablet electronic flight bags have become ubiquitous. Airline pilots these days depend on their iPads to access information from several different apps during a given flight. Switching back and forth between apps can be cumbersome and involve considerable […]

The 2019 edition of Sporty’s instrument rating course is now available, and it’s a major update incorporating hours of all-new HD video content, “smart” study tools and the ability to switch among multiple viewing formats (Web, Android, iPhone/iPad and Apple TV). Best of all, the course includes all of this for one price. Price for […]