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The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts. Click here to view “Airworthiness Directives.”

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American General AA-5A Cheetah
Poor Engine Performance
The aircraft owner reported the engine performance deteriorated during flight.A mechanic discovered the carburetor bowl was not attached tightly to the throttle body. Even though the locking-tab washers under the attachment screws were properly installed, the screws were loose. The gasket may have shrunk or the attachment screws were not properly tightened during installation, allowing excessive air to be dr…

While you are scanning your flight instruments closely, over in some other corner of the panel are some other instruments that are worth more than a glance, IFR or VFR: the engine performance instruments.

If you dont include them in your scan, you cant really tell if your aircraft engine is in good health. Theyll help you decide when to draw the line and say that the engine is not safe enough to continue on the flight. It may be running now, but your instruments may help you determine how long it will continue to run as advertised.

There are symptoms of failing engine health that an aware pilot should recognize. In some cases they may pinpoint a problem before it becomes trouble. I…

In the tumultuous atmosphere of an aircraft carrier, some of the worlds best pilots routinely embark on some of the most dangerous flying there is. Military aviation, especially carrier operations, demands disciplined pilots, well-maintained machines and a hard-headed look at the risk involved in every flight.

Even though most civilian pilots will never experience the critical flying demands that a fighter pilot takes in stride, the stakes are just as high. A wrecked airplane is still a wrecked airplane, and a dead pilot is still a dead pilot.

Over the years the military has learned a lot of things about flying, airplanes and risk assessment by losing a lot of blood, people and airp…

If youre like most pilots, you carry a touch of power into the flare, then pull it off as the airplane settles to the ground. Powered approaches are routinely safer than power-off approaches. Pilot judgment is less stressed, and a little power can make up for a lot of mistakes in the pattern.

Think about how long its been since youve done a power-off landing. In a way, its a shame. The skills they help develop are useful in other ways, such as an engine-out landing. Volumes have been written on forced landings, crash landings, flameouts, engine-out landings, off-airport landings and a host of other colorfully termed dead-engine landing scenarios. Every pilot should have his or her ow…

At the end of July every summer, thousands of pilots hear the sirens song luring them to Oshkosh. For many, the trip involves a long flight in a sport plane seldom flown cross-country. For a few, the challenge is too much.

Pilots who ignore the pilgrimage to aviations Mecca are not immune. Family vacations and the desire to explore tap into the quality that airplanes do best: long trips.

Long trips have many advantages over short ones. You can climb higher, get above the thermals and into cooler, smoother air. The airplane consumes less fuel in the thinner air and goes faster. You may be able to catch a favorable tailwind and whisk along over the countryside watching the GPS or DME c…

Very seldom does instrument training adequately prepare a pilot for flying in actual weather. While an instrument rating gives you the ability to fly in the clouds, the wisdom of knowing what to avoid is more difficult to earn. One weather situation that seldom comes up during training but that greatly increases the risk for the pilot is heavy rain.

The biggest risks of flying in heavy rain are the associated windshears, downdrafts and visual illusions. The problem can be particularly difficult during approach, where you have limited ability to divert unless you abandon the approach entirely.

Heavy rain showers, especially close to decision height, can be very distracting and furthe…

I enjoyed Wally Millers article Big Pile of Trouble [Weather Tactics, June], but I was sorry to see that he did not list my favorite pre-flight planning guideline and flying technique for handling wind and the mountains. At my flying club in Seattle, they teach us to plan for at least 1,000 feet of ridge clearance for each 10 mph of wind at altitude. If your airplane cannot fly at that altitude, take a different one (we have a pressurized Centurion) or do not go. Following this guideline does not assure that you will stay out of trouble – as pointed out in Millers article – but it does give the pilot a minimum altitude to fly and reasonable basis for a go/no-go decision.

-Daniel Wise…

Everyone knows that where theres smoke, theres fire. When most people think about smoke and fire in aviation, three things come to mind: engine fire, electrical fire, crash site. There is, however, another form of smoke that certainly demands respect, and thats the smoke created by wildfires.

Wildfires both large and small create a number of special hazards to general aviation that must be treated with caution. Though wildfires are most common in the western U.S., urban residents of Long Island, Florida, Malibu and Oakland have experienced the powerful ravage of wildfires recently in this decade. The power of wildfire and its hazards to aviators throughout the country should not be…

Light twin flying and rattlesnake encounters start without much drama, certainly, but with carelessness and a casual attitude about the possible end results. Theyre rigged against untrained and unwary people, however, and the results are often the same.

Twin-engine airplanes demand a healthy respect from those who fly them. Some of that must come from the improved performance when everything is working right, and some must come from the slim margins for error that exist when something goes wrong.

Once upon a time, back in 1979, things were booming in general aviation circles. Sales of light piston twins had been increasing by leaps and bounds for a decade. The popular reasoning of the…

A pilot girds for attempting GPS approaches for the first time.

A safety pilot or instructor is in the right seat to look out for traffic and aircraft control while the new GPS owner briefs himself (again) on his toy. The two pilots go over the planned approach and probably program it into the box while still on the ground.

They take off and fly away from the airport to check out operation of the moving map and make sure the simple-looking en route stuff really is simple. That part probably goes pretty smoothly, and soon theyre emboldened and ready to make the first approach. Maybe the left seater goes under the hood. Maybe he doesnt.

ATC gives the pilot vectors to the final appr…