Search Results for: Cessna 172

Recently, as is customary when I give an instrument proficiency check (IPC), before the flight I review en route and approach charts with the pilot. While randomly going through the Florida approach book, we saw the North Bay Visual RWY 18L charted visual flight procedure (CVFP) at the St Pete-Clearwater airport (KPIE) and a couple questions came up.

Garmin said yesterday its GFC 500 autopilot received the FAA’s supplemental type certification for a number of less complex single-engine aircraft like the Cessna 172 and 182. When linked with Garmin’s G5 primary attitude indicator, that provides input and display of altitude preselect, heading, vertical speed target, airspeed target, as well as flight director command […]

When I was a child there was an apple tree in our front yard. It was a joy. In the summertime you could walk up to that tree, shake it and feast on those delicious loose apples that were just about ready to fall to the ground on their own but hadn’t yet. Sometimes, if […]

As we do at the end of each year, the editors of Flying have compiled a list of the most important, compelling and industry-shaping news stories to emerge in the preceding 12 months. As always, the year was jam-packed with major news stories, from the political battles that gripped Washington to new airplane introductions and […]

October 1, 2017, Klamath Falls, Ore.Cirrus Design SR22At about 1043 Pacific time, the airplane was destroyed when it impacted terrain while maneuvering in a remote mountainous area. The private pilot and the passenger received fatal injuries. Instrument conditions were reported in the area at the time of the accident.

Most pilots look forward to the challenge involved in qualifying to fly a new make or model aircraft. They anticipate the ritual involved in the checkout and are understandably proud when they receive a signoff from a flight instructor. That ritual may involve one flight and three touch-and-goes, or multiple flights and several instrument approaches, among other operations. Regardless, managing the risks of introducing yourself to a new aircraft is at the core of this…

Every January we get to snicker up our flight jacket sleeves at the antics of easily distracted pilots with wings, rotors or other means of defying gravity-and logic. While this custom of mocking those whove slipped the surly bonds of sanity and touched the face of chagrin goes back many years, we cling to hope that we will learn from our mistakes. Alas…These exploits are gleaned from NTSB reports from 2014, excluding fatal accidents. So, if you rose from the ashes of what should have killed you that year, youre fair game.

I grew up and learned to fly on the snow-swept plains of Minnesota, but I really grew up in the crowded, smoggy skies over Southern California. It’s where I spent a couple of lean years flight instructing and freight dogging, making lifelong friends while scrambling to make ends meet on some vanishingly small paychecks. I […]

The 1993 movie Groundhog Day is an American classic. The film has become synonymous with routine and repetition. Recalling the final scene, Bill Murray wakes up to the radio alarm clock when the last digit clicks to 6:00, just as it had done hundreds of times before. The same Sonny & Cher lyrics of “I […]

Clouds are mostly harmless, but sometimes they turn on you.