The opening line of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” is an apropos description of today’s used-airplane market. For buyers these are great times to be in the hunt for an airplane that’s gotten some gentle use and good care. But for […]
Visitors to the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) convention in Atlanta in October got the first public look at the results of a major transformation from the original proof-of-concept PiperJet. Even the name has changed. It’s now the PiperJet Altaire, and the new look and functionality are much more jetlike than the original’s. The basics […]
The flight school where I completed most of my flight training and where I instructed for nearly two years is called Justice Aviation. Every year, Justice and a few other businesses at Santa Monica Airport host a Christmas party – an event I always attend to catch up with friends and former coworkers. This year, […]
John is the son of a country gas station and restaurant owner and private pilot, who for a while owned an Aeronca 7AC Champion. When at the age 6 of John first flew with his father, he knew immediately that flying was something he was going to do. In 1960 at the age of 16, […]
There are jobs in which you’re required to punch a time clock, and there are jobs in which your value is not measured in how long you do something but rather in what it is you do. So what does this have to do with aviation? Congress, in its questionable wisdom, has passed a law […]
Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga), whose district includes the home of Gulfstream, will co-chair the House General Aviation Caucus when legislators reconvene in January. The year-old caucus is one of the largest in the House, with more than 120 members. Barrow will replace Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) as the co-chair of the caucus after Boyd failed in […]
When looking for signs of recovery in general aviation, one of the first indicators is what’s happening with used aircraft sales. But according to data supplied by JetNet and published by McGraw Hill, there’s not much insight to take away from September’s numbers, the latest ones available. Jet sales in North America were pretty consistent […]
Instrument failure doesnt happen often. But when it appears in an accident report, its almost universally fatal. Instrument failure is part of the required syllabus for the IFR rating, and on the list of items to be included in an instrument proficiency check (IPC). While failures not resulting in an accident or incident arent reported, the record shows a casual, once-in-a-while demonstration of partial-panel skills doesnt prepare many pilots when an instrument actually fails in IMC. Here are 10 tips you can use in the course of every flight to prepare yourself for partial panel.
I fly regularly, adding about 400 to 500 hours per year these days in a combination of ferry and instruction work. So why do I even think about simulator-based recurrent training? What good does it do to fly a sim when I get 60 or 70 real IMC approaches each year, along with lots of flight planning in real life? While Im certainly not the most experienced pilot out there, I still go in for simulator-based recurrent training. By contrast, the average general aviation pilot flies nowhere near that much. Instead, he or she might reasonably ask, “If I get a BFR, isnt that enough? After all, I only fly locally and the occasional cross-country for a $150 hamburger.” There are two basic answers, which are both simple and complicated.
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