Search Results for: Lear 45

Recent general aviation and air carrier accidents

Twenty years ago, the idea of carrying sophisticated digital radar in anything under a medium twin would probably have been met with roars of laughter, but technology has brought amazing advances. Now its possible for even an ultralight pilot to use the Internet to access essentially the same tools that are available to forecasters.

Flying along the Atlantic Coast recently I glimpsed the future of aviation without even realizing it at the time. Enjoying my unique view of the sunlight glimmering on the waves as they pounded the sandy beaches below, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a traffic target on my DiamondStar’s Garmin G1000 flight […]

Although it hasnt released the final report to the public, the FAAs unleaded avgas transition rulemaking committee (UAT-ARC) will recommend a fuel-approvals process stretching out as long as 11 years and will be asking Congress for at least $60 million to fund the project, plus as much as $13 million from the industry. The snowball is starting to turn down the hill, said Lycoming General Manager Michael Kraft What it does is to give anyone…

Your editorial in the May issue, Looking for Eight More Lives, quoting from the Air Safety Institutes 2012 TAA Special Report, provides an example of how easily summary statistics can lead us astray. Different reports use different methodologies.

I remember a few years ago I watched my captain try vainly to intercept the localizer. He had a good intercept angle, but the needle just wouldnt come in. Interestingly enough, though, my HSI showed a completely different-and more reasonable-picture.

The tale used to go like this: Its a dark and stormy night. Youve spent the last 500 miles bouncing around the inside of an unbroken cloud, living in a world of round instruments 20 inches in front of your face. Youve kept the attitude indicator blue-side up, the altimeters 100s hand at 12 oclock, and the CDI needle within a degree or two of center as VOR after VOR has ticked by. On departure, the TAF for your destination was sickeningly close to minimums-but that information is hours old.

Surprisingly, the FAA is not the place to look for a definition of established. The AIM and the Instrument Flying Handbook say nothing on the topic. Only in the Instrument Procedures Handbook (FAA-H-8261-1A) does a definition pop up, and it just says that ICAO defines established as within half-scale indication on a localizer or VOR course. Useful, but there must be more.

Five years ago I adopted a different kind of recurrency routine for myself. It did away with the annual three days of fire-hose drinking and associated abuse and replaced it with a monthly program that would cover all the details over the course of a year. I wrote about it in July 2007 IFR.

In the film The Kings Speech, the future King George VI stammers and fumbles trying to start a nationally broadcast speech in front of a packed Wembley Stadium. With obligatory camera shots of the red On Air light blinking in mockery, the prince gives up and walks away from the microphone.