Search Results for: Lear 45

We pilots love engines and with good reason. We rely on their continued trouble-free operation to keep us flying safely. Perhaps more to the point, without engines, flight would never have gone far, and it can be argued that every noteworthy advance in aircraft performance was preceded by a noteworthy advance in power-plant design. There […]

February 2, 2014, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Gates Learjet Corp. 35AAt about 2230 Eastern time, the airplane was involved in a ground crew injury during engine start and taxi in preparation for a Part 135 medical transport flight. The pilot, co-pilot and two cabin crewmembers were not injured, and the airplane was not damaged, but a ground […]

The following article is from Flying’s May 2013 issue. My pilot certificate has some eclectic type ratings — a Lockheed 18 Lodestar, the Fairchild Swearingen SA-227 (Metroliner or San Antonio Stovepipe), the Douglas DC-3 and then there’s that commercial hot air balloon thing. But I gotta tell you, the most exotic flying machine, the one […]

A few years back, a Cessna 172 pilot had trouble starting his airplane and decided to hand-prop it near the Typhoon restaurant at the Santa Monica airport. No one was inside the Skyhawk. The engine spun up, and the airplane made a solo trip across runway 21. In the process, it made a business jet […]

It was an old story. A relatively inexperienced pilot practicing landings got too slow on final approach, stalled and crashed. The pilot, 56, was flying a club Cherokee 180, a type in which he had logged 13 of his 130 hours. He was making a short round-robin cross-country flight, ostensibly for practice, with landings at […]

The lobby of the Hilton Hotel across from the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, is packed with conventioneers. They are making a joyous noise. I am looking for Phil Smith among the throng; we will be joined at the hip for the better part of a month as we progress through “Indoc” at […]

December 1, 2013, Yellow Pine, Idaho Beech B36TC Turbocharged BonanzaAt 1303 Mountain time, radar and radio communication with the aircraft were lost. The instrument-rated private pilot and his four passengers are missing at this writing; the airplane has not been located. Instrument conditions prevailed and an IFR flight plan was in effect. While cruising at 13,000 […]

Only five percent of general aviation accidents during 2010 occurred in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). But these accidents comprised 18 percent of all fatal crashes that year, and almost two-thirds of them proved fatal. According to the AOPA Air Safety Institute’s 2011 Nall Report, this is a familiar pattern.

At around 1515 Central time, the airplane impacted terrain. There were no reported witnesses to the accident. The private pilot and two passengers were fatally injured; one passenger received serious injuries. The airplane was substantially damaged. Visual conditions prevailed and an IFR flight plan had been filed.

To say that electrical systems are not my strong point is something of an understatement. The reality is I don’t actually believe in electricity, and although I’ve spent a lifetime regurgitating answers to questions on oral and written tests about amps and volts and ohms and AC and DC current and inverters and buses and […]