Search Results for: Citation X

When I trained for my private pilot certificate, 91.103 was drilled into my head. Each pilot in command, it says, shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight. The core of that is straight from the Boy Scouts: be prepared. Now, as an air traffic controller, it concerns me when pilots arent aware of major issues affecting their flight. Sometimes we controllers have to be the voice of reason, preventing a pilot from doing something that may not be in his best interest. Other times, we have to hold his hand and walk him through a new situation. Thankfully, the vast majority of our operations are routine. Its the remainder that can make things interesting. Facing an underprepared or overzealous pilot can test a controllers knowledge of his rules, his airspace, and his ability to think outside the box to find a safe, legal solution.

Ive not found any published data on the subject, but after years or reading accident reports Ive formed the opinion that pilots making takeoffs that will be followed by a flight on an IFR flight plan may unconsciously add a little more I gotta go come hell or high water attitude than their normal, Type A, mission-completion orientation to the decision-making process.

It’s every passenger’s worst nightmare. The flight is going smoothly and then, out of nowhere, the pilot convulses and passes out at the controls. Suddenly, the front-seat passenger is faced with the most daunting challenge he or she may likely ever face: to control the airplane and land it safely in more or less one […]

Let me say at the outset that general aviation pilots do not have to worry about wake turbulence because wake turbulence will only be dangerous on takeoff, departure, climb-out, enroute, descent, approach and landing.See, no problem.Oh, uh…wait-that pretty much covers the entire flight, doesnt it? Maybe we should worry about wake turbulence.

Wheels Up, the membership-based private aviation firm formed nearly two years ago by former NetJets vice chairman Kenny Dichter, is aiming to expand the private aviation customer base in the United States by millions of travelers with introduction of the industry’s first bizplane ride-sharing app. Dichter says the app will let Wheels Up members share […]

Nick Guida, the founder of Tamarack Aerospace Group, told Flying that the budget and staff cuts associated with sequestration along with a flawed sequencing system, which is apparently no longer in effect, became too much of a barrier for the Supplemental Type Certification for its Active Technology Load Alleviation System (ATLAS). But Guida was not […]

One of the concerns many pilots express about doing their flight planning on a tablet computer is that they dont spend time with a chart and a plotter looking over a route. They end up starting a flight with less situational awareness about airports where they can bail out if something goes wrong en route. That, combined with what can become a rote fixation on selecting an IFR alternate based only on the regs regarding weather at the destination, is an invitation to poor decision-making when a little smoke in the cockpit means shutting off the electrical system a third of the way into the flight, or the engine starts running rough on initial climb from an airport thats below approach minimums.One way out of these dilemmas is to keep in mind the FARs are, by law, nothing more than minimum standards-and only looking at an alternate airport for the destination on an IFR flight of 500 miles might not be doing ourselves any favors. We always need an ace in the hole, and it doesnt have to be the one we tell the FAA about on the flight plan.

On the opening day of EBACE Textron Aviation announced that the standard avionics package for its entire King Air lineup would be the Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion suite. The flagship King Air 350 and popular King Air 250 will get the new flight decks by this summer, and the C90GTX will get it later […]

Ernie Edwards’ retirement as president for Embraer Executive Jets appears to have nothing to do with rest and relaxation. Instead, the highly experienced executive has taken on a new role to help bring the highly anticipated Aerion AS2 supersonic business jet, currently in development, to the market. Edwards has accepted the role as senior vice […]

FlightSafety International is suing an engine repair and overhaul shop that it claims was responsible for the October crash of a Beechcraft King Air into its Wichita Cessna Citation training center, which killed four people including the pilot. The lawsuit, filed in Dallas County District Court, alleges that MRO firm Dallas Airmotive improperly repaired the […]