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Just imagine an early U.S. Mail pilot boarding the train with his mail pouch to continue westbound to deliver the mail. This may have been one of the earliest encounters of pilot vs. thunderstorm, with the pilot being unable to complete the flight as planned.

Have the odds changed with the advent of new technologies? General aviation pilots now have lightning detectors, improved ATC radar and communications, and some even are equipped with on-board color weather radar. Armed with these tools, should pilots reconsider the advice of their first flight instructors, who preached the merits of not even flying in the same county as a thunderstorm?

My first experiences in flying around thund…

Understanding spins takes far more training than a one-shot exposure to a one-turn spin.

An engine failure on takeoff will take you by surprise, so be spring-loaded for action.

How about a tip of the hat for the long-suffering flight instructor, a hardworking professional who gets neither the respect nor the pay he deserves. And considering the risks involved in teaching a ham-fisted neophyte to fly, we wonder how it is that many survive for long.

Is that a credit to raw skill or the clever design of the average primary trainer? A little of both, we suppose, but from time to time, were asked to rate training aircraft solely on safety records, good or bad.

In a joint research project with our sister publication, The Aviation Consumer, we launched an effort to assess the safety of different models of airplanes. In our first – and we hope not last – analysis, w…

The February article Moment of Truth on takeoff techniques brought a flood of mail. The comments generally pertained to two parts of the article: the dynamic effect of crosswinds and the effect of headwinds on takeoff runs.

Regarding the effect of crosswinds on controllability, the most common misperception is that the sole purpose of applying aileron control into the wind is to increase ground friction on the upwind wheel and stop the airplane from drifting downwind. It is true aileron into the crosswind does indeed increase friction on the upwind tire and aids in offsetting wind drift, but the primary purpose is to prevent the windward wing from rising.

The greater the surface area…

Human errors in aviation have potentially tragic results. Pilots tend to be perfectionists, always seeking to make another perfect landing and slightly aggravated at themselves if they bounce one in. Its even more embarrassing when you have a planeload of passengers along when you bounce one in.

In an effort to determine if there are better ways to prevent pilot error, researchers have looked at human learning and decision-making behaviors to see if there are common themes in accidents that lend themselves to effective preventive measures. One of the more interesting studies produced a list of conditions that tend to increase the chance of human error.

Unfamiliar With the Environm…