Search Results for: Lear 45

We were sitting on the porch, reading the paper. My wife, Cathy, held actual newsprint in her hand while I stared at the bright black-and-white copy and colorful photos on a tablet. As the newspaper rustled toward her lap, she looked over at me and asked, “Why is it that you want to be captain?” […]

There are some things that you never expect to see together, and they surprise you when used in the same context: West Texas referred to as alpine, Donald Trumps name beside front runner, and hashtags on approach charts, I cant explain that second one, but the first and last make sense when digging into the RNAV (GPS) Rwy 19 approach at E38, a.k.a. Alpine, Texas.

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.

This months accident easily could have resulted from perhaps the most insidious preflight challenges: interruptions. Being interrupted in the middle of, say, refueling or checking the engine oil can have severe consequences. The trick for me always has been to start over after the interruption is resolved. If this means leaving passengers in the FBO lobby until Im ready, or missing a clearance void time, so be it. If it means answers to a passengers questions must be postponed, thats okay, too. Interruptions during a preflight inspection are insidious because they allow us to consider a task complete when it isnt. Well never know if an interruption during the preflight inspection helped cause this months accident, but its as good an explanation as any.

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 […]

My thumb was already in motion toward the mic button to declare an emergency when the Anchorage Center controller’s voice sounded in my headset. “N4577L, cleared for the ILS DME Runway 11 approach at Ketchikan.” It was January in southeastern Alaska. John and I were on our way home to San Diego in our Cessna […]

Whenever two or more pilots get together in the same place, the conversation eventually gets around to which of them has the greatest number of flight hours. The yardstick of how much time youve spent aloft is more than just small-scale bragging rights, of course-it also can determine whether youre eligible for a subsequent certificate, or even legal to carry passengers. And then theres the matter of insurance coverage.The simple fact is that most of the aviation world measures how competent we are in the cockpit by how much time we may have spent there. The inference is that high-time pilots are safer, and that low-time pilots are less safe. The fallacy is highlighted if we put someone with 20,000 hours as PIC of a 747 into a piston single and ask him or her to perform an engine-out approach from downwind: Without some practice-i.e., some experience with that particular operation-its not likely to turn out well. What is experience? How to measure it? Most important: If its so valuable, how can we get more of it?

The potential for in-flight icing during an IFR flight-regardless of whether the airplane is approved for flight into known icing or not-means doing serious plotting and scheming prior to departure, and throughout the flight. As has been demonstrated for years, structural icing does bad things to airframes. Best to presume every cloud will contain ice, and plan accordingly.To illustrate our point, well look at a hypothetical flight from the Lima (Ohio) Allen County Airport (KAOH) to the Wexford County Airport in Cadillac, Mich. (KCAD). (Were going to KCAD because the FBO rents airplanes on skis and we purely love skiplane flying.) To get there, well be flying a Cessna 177B Cardinal, a stable instrument platform with satisfactory climb and cruise performance, but lacking turbocharging or real ice protection.

Every month, Aviation Safety publishes aircraft accident reports in order to give our readers the broadest perspective on aviation and the risks it involves. Our goal is to pass along a message of caution and safety as much as one of thrill and freedom. That’s why we think you should hear about recent mishaps from around the country. Here are some gathered from the National Transportation Safety Board.

Reader’s accounts of their funniest, cleverest, worst, best, or proudest moments in flight. Send us your cleverest (or most embarrassing) moment on the radio-or your favorite fix names or airport names-with a subject of OTA, to IFR@BelvoirPubs.com. Be sure to include your full name and location.