Not just anybody can join this group. We’ve been meeting for close to 30 years, and we guard admission with diligence. To become a member, you must be a man who looks good on paper, but be a bit of a mess in real life. Turns out, there are a lot of us. In the […]
Like the late stand-up comic Rodney Dangerfield who never seemed to get enough respect, the people at Gary Airport (GYY) feel as if they’ve been missing the love for many years. Sitting 20 miles south of Chicago along the shore of Lake Michigan, Gary Airport has certainly seen its share of failed airline startups including […]
ELT (emergency locator transmitter). A self-contained radio transmitter that automatically begins transmitting on the emergency frequencies any time it is triggered by a severe impact parallel to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. Required by all U.S. civil airplane category aircraft except as provided below [91.207(e) and (f)]. Transmits on 121.5 MHz or the newer […]
Pilots like to fly low, so what can we learn from this 2017 Cessna 172 accident?
An acquaintance named Mark Burton recently sent me a copy of his book about an airport owned and operated by his family called Brownie’s. A few days later, I met a guy at a party who regaled me (unsolicited) with wild and woolly tales about flying out of a now defunct airport called Brownie’s with […]
If there’s one continuous strand that winds through the motley tapestry of my life, one single word that sums up who I am and what makes me tick, it’s wanderlust. My family, youth, career, marriage and passions for motorcycling, sailing and flying are all tied together by a constant, inveterate urge to head over the […]
When John came to in the hospital a number of years ago after a lapse of consciousness, you will appreciate that the very first concern he expressed was for his aviation medical certificate. Perhaps the most significant and deeply personal touchpoint with the FAA for every pilot is the medical certification process. To a pilot, […]
An approach to safety of dont have an accident and always effectively weight risks doesnt work because we dont take actions we think will cause accidents. Tom Turner recently presented a Wings seminar, Stop Teaching About Safety, covering this. Safetys an integral outcome, not a separate goal. Instead, he suggested approaching flying as its master and commander: The result will be safety. While being master and commander will work for all pilots, the instrument environment presents unique challenges to achieving that goal.
Richfield was forecast to be overcast 2000 or better all day, so you didnt file an alternate and didnt carry alternate fuel. So thats the situation: 12,700 MSL at EBOVE, no GPS, no DME. Even turn off GPS location on your iPad if you have that. (In ForeFlight, this is in settings, scroll to the bottom, and set Enable Ownship to Never.) Give yourself 45 minutes of fuel at normal cruise. No one said you were good at planning.
When average Americans wake up and go to work every day, they expect to see mostly the same faces, same routine, the same stuff-like the expression same stuff, different day suggests. When pilots and air traffic controllers go to work, its often the same coworkers in the room or cockpit, but we both work with people on a daily basis that we have most likely never met. In fact, the chance that a center controller has met a pilot that they talk to on the radio is miniscule. Tower and TRACON controllers might have a somewhat higher chance.
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