Search Results for: Cessna 172

Loss of control in-flight (LOC-I) has become the safety issue du jour, and justifiably so. According to the NTSB, between 2001 and 2011, over 40 percent of fatal fixed-wing GA accidents occurred because pilots lost control of their airplanes. Takeoff and climb, landing and maneuvering are regarded to be the flight phases in which pilots are most susceptible to LOC-I,

Validating ADM, the AC cites a study where student pilots who received ADM training made 10-50 percent fewer judgment errors than untrained students. This is why the new Airman Certification Standards incorporate a risk management component into every task to promote learning and applying risk management during flight training. Yet learning ADM is challenging in part because much FAA documentation is, frankly, poorly organized and excessively wordy.

As Arnie’s Army takes time out to reflect on the incredible career and life of one of golf’s most beloved figures, the aviation world is also mourning the loss of Arnold Palmer, 87, an accomplished pilot who served for decades as a steadfast ambassador for flying. Palmer died September 25 in Pittsburgh of complications from […]

I’d just sunk my hands into a gloriously gluey lump of flour and water when the wall phone rang. Yes, I still have a landline, bake bread, can pickles, put up preserves and make mud pies. I grabbed the receiver with my grossly sticky hand and spent most of a half-hour listening to a young […]

Veteran pilots know better, because theyve learned that stalls are a normal part of flying, neither an aberration nor abnormal. They realize and understand stalls are simply what happens at the lowest end of an aircrafts normal flight envelope. Stalls when not wanted, not needed, at the wrong time, wrong place bend airplanes and break people. Which brings us to the first and most-important rule to remember about stalls: A stall can occur at any airspeed, in any attitude and at any power setting, from dead engine through full power.

The flight instructor set the airplane up for simulated engine failure by pulling out the carburetor heat control and reducing throttle to 1200 rpm. The student pilot followed emergency procedures, used the checklist and prepared to land. After the carburetor heat control was pushed back in and the throttle advanced, there was a sudden loss of power; efforts to restart the engine were unsuccessful. The airplane collided with the fence during the landing.

As I write this, Im looking at my Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award sitting near the window sill. Its the most prestigious award the FAA issues to pilots, according to the agency, and eligibility for it requires a minimum of 50 years to elapse since a pilots first solo flight. I originally dismissed this award as an overblown creation of the FAA or, worse, an old geezers award for longevity. I finally decided it would be a great bookend for a lifetime of flying, or a beginning of the next chapter. For those of you out there with 50 continuous years of flying without accident, incident or violation-or if you know someone who meets the minimum requirements-you can find details of the award and how to apply on the FAA website.

the applicant must demonstrate the ability to perform the Tasks listed in the table below. The person giving the check should develop a scenario that incorporates as many required Tasks as practical to assess the pilot’s ADM and risk management skills.””

When considering landing on a runway with marginal length or a difficult or obstructed departure path, the first stage of aeronautical decision-making is deciding whether to land in the first place. The next one is if you land, can you make it out safely? Quite often there are good reasons to do neither, with perhaps the biggest single factor being density altitude, usually when trying to take off at the planned time. In case youre thinking density altitude (DA) is strictly something that concerns mountain-flying enthusiasts like me, you should know it is not a concept unique to the high country. High-altitude pilots just have a head start when it comes to familiarity with DA. Anyone whos flown in the summertime, including from sea-level airports, has experienced some form of DA.

It was a warm spring day at Flagstaff. The wind was down Runway 21 at 16 knots with gusts to 22. The density altitude at the airport, 7,000 feet above sea level, was 9,000 feet; but that would not be a problem for the lightly loaded A36 Bonanza that taxied away from the FBO a […]