Search Results for: Cessna 172

A new private pilot, who had big dreams but not big money, was contemplating purchasing an older Mooney. He had limited mechanical skills and no concept of the potential cost of maintaining a complex airplane. He just liked the looks of the plane and its performance. Roger that. Many people buy their first aircraft for […]

Vulcanair of Italy has revealed plans for a four-place light single dubbed the V1.0 that the uninitiated will probably mistake for a wildly modified Cessna Skyhawk. The high-wing design will feature a 180 horsepower Lycoming IO-360 engine and Garmin glass avionics — both hallmarks of the Cessna single. But unlike the Skyhawk, Vulcanair plans to […]

March 1, 2014, Marlboro, Mass. Piper PA-11S Cub SpecialAccording to the pilot, he was regaining his 90-day passenger-carrying privileges; his most recent flight was about five months earlier. He had performed one landing successfully. On the second landing, the airplane touched down on all three wheels and was decelerating. The airplane subsequently veered to the left, […]

We pilots love engines and with good reason. We rely on their continued trouble-free operation to keep us flying safely. Perhaps more to the point, without engines, flight would never have gone far, and it can be argued that every noteworthy advance in aircraft performance was preceded by a noteworthy advance in power-plant design. There […]

Unless you’re someone we’d really like to get to know better, it’s likely you’re not flying around in your own personal jet. Which means you probably are flying behind, between, below or in front of at least one propeller. They’re marvelous devices, often subjected to substantial forces as they unceasingly (we hope) spin thousands of times per minute. They also can be a bit mysterious, even the fixed-pitch variety.

February 2, 2014, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Gates Learjet Corp. 35AAt about 2230 Eastern time, the airplane was involved in a ground crew injury during engine start and taxi in preparation for a Part 135 medical transport flight. The pilot, co-pilot and two cabin crewmembers were not injured, and the airplane was not damaged, but a ground […]

Like so many of us who love aviation, I was lucky enough to have someone in my life who introduced me to the thrill of flight at a young age — in my case, my father. As a fighter pilot in the Air Force for 21 years, first flying F-4s and then F-15s, and then […]

In 2010, I traveled to Haiti to deliver medical supplies in the aftermath of the powerful earthquake that leveled much of the area in and around impoverished Port-au-Prince. It was no surprise that the crew of a Quest Kodiak beat me there. After all, the Kodiak was created to serve as a primary workhorse for […]

As pilots, we spend a lot of time focusing on obvious hazards to our flight operations: convective activity, icing, low ceilings and other conditions. Pilots who fail to manage such risks constitute a disproportionate share of fatal accidents. These flight conditions, however, are not the only potential hazards that we should consider for the purposes of managing risk. Tasks and procedures required on every flight are also potential hazard sources and should be viewed through the risk management lens. These include such routine and necessary tasks as takeoffs and landings, even under benign conditions, as well as operations under calm skies in VMC conditions when there is still other traffic to avoid.

A student pilot called recently about scheduling a private practical test and mentioned that he had logged several hundred hours over a number of years. He then explained he’d surrendered his private pilot certificate after an accident — well, actually, after two accidents. Somehow he’d avoided any FAA action on the first one, a sort […]