Search Results for: Cessna 172

On a fine spring day, you trundled off to Driggs, Idaho, to meet your buddy and sneak off to the best-kept-secret fishing spot in the west Tetons. Your buddy made a killing because he was an Apple geek in the ’80s and bought no stock but theirs. He chartered a plane to Driggs. You invested heavily in the DeLorean Motor Company-and arrived in your dads old 172H.

Can I Just Breath Air?Thanks for your excellent article on aircraft oxygen systems in April. It is a common misconception that these systems deliver air. Although your article correctly referred to oxygen, people often ask, “Can’t I just breathe the air from my scuba tank? It costs a lot less to fill, and I already […]

Overheard on a typically busy Sunday morning just north of ORD in Chicago:Cessna 123BD: Chicago Approach, Cessna 123BD.Approach: Cessna 123BD, approach, say type and request.Cessna 123BD: Wed like to land at OHare.Approach: 123BD, I have no flight plan for you, say type and position.Cessna 123BD: Were a 172 over the Chicago Heights VOR.Approach: 123BD, is this a full stop?Cessna 123BD: No, wed like to do touch-and-goes.Approach (after a long pause): 123BD, we dont do touch-and-goes…

Returning IFR from Opa-Locka (KOPF) to our home airport F45, we overheard this exchange.Cherokee 123 Alpha Bravo: Miami Center, Cherokee 123 Alpha Bravo, 20 SW 3000 feet. Request flight following, Stuart, KSUA.Center: Cherokee 123 Alpha Bravo, roger. Do you require an IFR clearance? Were showing below VFR minimums in your area.Cherokee 123 Alpha Bravo: Nah. Well be ok once we get outa these clouds. …

Any activity that regularly kills between one half and one percent of its participants has room for improvement. Cutting the GA accident and death rate has been a cause celeb recently, and we heartily approve. Here at IFR, we decided to make our own contribution by delving into the accident rate specifically for IMC, focusing on where the outcomes were fatal.

In the summer of 1967 I was a 16-year-old student pilot flying out of Cornelia Fort Airpark in Nashville, Tennessee. This historic airport had been around since 1944 and was still surrounded by farmland. I had been flying since I was 14 with the local Civil Air Patrol unit. By the time I decided to […]

Imagine sliding open the door to your hangar, unplugging the power cable snaking from your airplane to a quick-charging station on the wall and taking to the sky in a sleek four-seater powered only by the smooth, quiet, nonpolluting whir of an electric motor connected to rows of lithium battery packs nestled in the wing. […]

Cessna Skyhawks equipped with Centurion diesel engines, a retrofit installation recently offered as a part of Redbird Flight Simulations’ Redhawk conversion and Premier Aircraft Sales’ Skyhawk upgrade program, can now get another upgrade, which promises better climb rates and faster speeds. The FAA has signed off on a supplemental type certificate that allows for the […]

Flying behind air-cooled powerplants, free of radiators or coolant tanks, it’s easy to forget most aircraft still need liquids of some type to operate safely and reliably. When those fluids are put under pressure to actuate a mechanism, we’ve created a hydraulic system, sometimes defined as something “using pressurized fluid to drive machinery or move mechanical components.” It also can be defined as transferring “energy by pressurizing fluid to force movement of a slave to produce the action sought.”

When I set out to learn to fly at the age of 13, I did not actually want to learn to fly. I wanted to be a pilot, and if I could have snapped my fingers and instantly acquired all the necessary skills and knowledge, I would have. I am sure I am not alone […]