Search Results for: Cessna 172

In what must have been a desperate attempt to meet gender quotas, the FAA hired me as an inspector in the Chicago O’Hare Air Carrier District Office in 1980. Six months later, somebody realized I knew absolutely nothing about jets or air carrier operations and farmed me out to the DuPage General Aviation District Office (GADOs then, […]

At 1945 Eastern time, the airplane experienced a total loss of engine power, was force-landed on a road and struck a telephone pole with the left wing. The commercial pilot and the passenger were both seriously injured. Visual conditions existed.

The FAA often lags high-tech innovations. When the Advanced Avionics Handbook first came out, many of us were already flying glass. Yet, Technically Advanced Aircraft (TAA)-essentially, aircraft with a navigator and moving map-raise critical questions, from how we update and maintain the stuff to how we train and use it.

Many air traffic control procedures can seem complex at times, but most are based on simple concepts. Take traffic calls, for instance. Theyre driven by basic self-preservation. If a controller can get a pilot to see another nearby aircraft, that pilot should avoid the other aircraft and make the controllers job easier and the skies safer-common sense in action.

The mako shark may not be the biggest, but it is the fastest and one of the most ferocious of all the shark species. Capable of traveling as fast as 60 mph over sustained distances, the mako has been known to spring surprise attacks on humans, though it doesn’t prefer human flesh. Its favorite food […]

The family of Michael Copeland, a Qualcomm executive who died when the Cessna 172 Skyhawk he piloted crashed as a result of a midair collision with a Sabreliner 60 last August, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against New Jersey-based Serco Inc., the private air traffic control company that contracts with the government to provide […]

Each year we pause in the quest for aviation excellence to examine those whove boldly gone where others with a mere dram of sense wouldnt. This review covers 2012, the most recent year for which the NTSB offers probable cause to improbable silliness. Only non-fatal events are covered because we assume its bad form to ridicule the dead. Contestants are limited to the USA, because, hell, we invented flight, even though France claims the naming rights. Plus, few other countries offer our freedom to fail.

A pilot reported hearing a Mayday call from another airplane, stating that the engine had failed and he was attempting to land on the east side of a canal. No further communications were received from the accident airplanes pilot.

The airplane world certainly has its share of unique lingo and clever slang. I thought I knew most of it until I came across “pilot pellets” — those cheese or peanut butter crackers in every FBO’s vending machine — and “rental power” — flying a “wet” rental airplane at full throttle. A little closer to […]

The couriers’ taillights faded in the distance as I pulled the Piper Navajo’s rear cabin door closed and silence fell anew over the darkened North Las Vegas Airport. I clambered over the cargo net restraining nearly a hundred stacked bank bags, slid into the front left seat, and quickly went through the preflight checklist and starting flows. “Master switch on, magnetos on, mixtures rich, left fuel […]