Search Results for: Lear 45

It was a good day for flying, and I had agreed to fly a fellow pilot/neighbor and his wife an hour or so away so he could conduct some personal business. The destination airport was a non-towered facility southwest of and outside a nearby piece of Class B airspace. Our flight down was uneventful and […]

May 2, 2020, Palmyra, Ill. Yakovlev Yak-52 At about 1600 Central time, the airplane was destroyed when it struck terrain during an impromptu aerobatic maneuver. The solo pilot was fatally injured. Visual conditions prevailed. A pilot-rated witness observed the airplane make a low pass down the runway toward the south at 20-30 feet agl. He […]

The thing about airborne emergencies is that there are not that many scenarios in which using the radio will help. Sure, getting lost or trying to find better weather come to mind, but most emergencies depend on the pilot or crew to resolve them without external help. Failure of a single-engine airplane’s powerplant is an […]

For the most part, flying a multi-engine airplane is just like flying a single. Until an engine fails. When transitioning from a single to a conventional twin, pilots spend most of their training learning to handle engine failures and to eke out what little performance remains. In conventional twins we’re likely to fly, that means […]

If you’re like me, one of the reasons you started flying was to go places. It’s not at all uncommon for the student pilot pounding around the pattern with an instructor to ask for a respite every now and then, perhaps a jaunt to a nearby airport, at the very least for a change of […]

Unless you’re flying a tailwheel-equipped airplane, you really don’t want the tail to touch the ground. It’s potentially dangerous, not to mention embarrassing. And a tail strike—when the tail section of an airplane contacts the surface while taking off or landing—can result in significant damage to the aft section of a tricycle-gear airplane. The good […]

My relationship with the mountains began on hikes with my family, camping trips up into the farthest corners of Glacier National Park that could be reached with a 7-year-old (me) and a toddling 4-year-old (my little brother) in close formation. We took what we could carry in our little packs—supplemented heavily with the resources my […]

Have you kept up your flying during the past few months, staying focused on achieving that first pilot certificate or a new rating? A lot of pilots have turned challenges into success—but some have struggled as well, and the support they’ve had from peers and mentors can make the difference in getting back on track […]

In the early 1970s, I was a captain in the Kansas Army National Guard flying a CH-54 Sky Crane helicopter IFR north bound off of Forbes Field, Topeka, Kansas. We were headed to annual training with Jeep on a four point load hung under the CH-54 for ground transportation upon arrival. We were level at […]

It’s always been curious to me how the lion’s share of GA training emphasizes landings over takeoffs. Smoothly returning to Earth certainly requires some skill and practice, and often serves as a common yardstick for non-pilots of how good the pilot is. But takeoffs also require skill and practice, and come with some different challenges. […]