Search Results for: Cessna 172

When I showed up all those many moons ago for my commercial checkride, there was a last-minute snag. To conserve funds, I had been flying a Piper Warrior II for the maneuvers and other elements of the practical test standards in use at the time, and a Piper Arrow II for the complex-airplane portion. (This […]

Stack the deck in your favor with some simple planning, preflight briefing, and by using a four-part departure framework.

Instrument pilots know that IMC is challenging and far less forgiving than flying visually. Proficient flying by instruments is a must for us lest we enter the NTSB annals. When the ink on our instrument tickets was still wet, our skills were ultra-sharp. But as time passed, without continued practice those instrument skills slowly atrophied. […]

Fuel economy is always a hot topic amongst airplane owners, but which are the go-to aircraft when you’re talking piston singles?

FLYING looks at the differences in miles per gallon among piston, turbine and jet models.

Several years ago, a pilot friend and former aircraft owner told me that owning an airplane is “more expensive than you would ever imagine,” and that was assuming I already imagined that it would be extremely expensive, even staggeringly so. Today, as I shop for my own airplane after years of renting, I realize he […]

Simulators first made a believer of me when I got a Pacer Mk II in 1978. In 10 years, I put over 1000 hours on it. It augmented my Cessna 172 so faithfully that I successfully moved 15 pilots through their instrument rating and completed 40 IPCs with its help. An FAA authorization allowed 15 […]

In its second year, the Husky National STOL Series event in Jennings, Louisiana—“Swamp STOL”—had some of the fiercest competition to date, with many pilots bumped from their comfortable first-place finishes by talented newcomers. While severe storms ravaged the surrounding areas, Jennings was 75 degrees and CAVU this year and offered up 15-kt gusty headwinds right […]

Beech Model E55 Baron Overtorqued Servo Clutch Testing of the pitch servo’s clutch tension revealed breakaway force needed was 45 lbs. The specified setting is 13 ± 2 lbs. Examination revealed a new cotter pin on the castle nut and the orange torque seal strip did not align. At some point during previous maintenance, the […]

January 1, 2022, Southeast Arcadia, Fla. Mooney M20C Ranger At about 1211 Eastern daylight time, the airplane was substantially damaged during a forced landing. The private pilot and passenger were not injured. Visual conditions prevailed. According to the pilot, he verified before takeoff there was sufficient fuel aboard for the flight. While on final approach […]