Search Results for: general aviation inc

I enjoyed reading the article Spinning a Tangled Web by John Lowery [Airmanship, April], however, some of his references to the T-37 spin characteristics and recovery procedures are incorrect. I have over 3000 hours instructor pilot time in the Tweet and Johns interpretation of the spin procedure is one of the little things that frustrated a lot of us IPs in Undergraduate Pilot Training.

Instructor training offered some real student interpretation challenges also, especially from instructor candidates coming from Century series aircraft. The T-37 spin recovery procedure calls for Throttles idle, rudder and ailerons neutral, stick – abruptly apply full AFT and hold, determine d…

Assessing your skills and your judgment are crucial, particularly when the weather refuses to cooperate

Aspen, Telluride, Hayden, Jackson, Sun Valley, Missoula, Ketchikan, Juneau.

These beautiful locations have some of the most treacherous instrument approaches found anywhere in the United States for one simple reason: big mountains. It will be many months before the NTSB issues its final report on the fatal accident of the Gulfstream that crashed during its final approach into Aspen on March 29, and the preliminary report it issued shortly after the crash contained less information than the local newspaper.

To state that the instrument approaches into these locations are tricky is an understatement. As a former EMS and fire-fighting pilot operating into all of these airports, I can te…

Remember that pilot personality self-survey, with the half-dozen psycho babble attitudes guaranteed to make a smoking hole? There was resigned, anti-authority, impulsive, macho and invulnerable.

We think a more accurate way to assess whether a pilot falls into one of these groups is to connect him to an EEG and see which button lights up following the words, Caution wake turbulence, departing 757.

Would your button be Resigned? Impulsive? Invulnerable? If you dont spend your spare time tearing up gyros for fun, the prospect of an uncommanded flight upset might make your blood run cold.

A better-than-average grasp of airmanship may cause you to understand that the instinct to p…

Any cloud connected to a severe thunderstorm carries the threat of violence. – AC 00-6A

One of the dangerous myths of aviation is that of the all-weather general aviation airplane. And while its true that modern technology has done wonders in making flying more reliable and safer, its important to remember that Mother Nature always has the last word. Heres an important case in point.

This mishap involved a turbocharged Piper Saratoga that broke up in flight in the vicious winds found in and around severe thunderstorms. The pilot was attempting to find his way through a band of thunderstorms, which extended from northeast to southwest over central New Mexico. Two cells ne…

Its crucial to learn the right habits from your very first flights because they form the foundation of your skills for the rest of your flying career.

When the proverbial fertilizer hits the fan, people tend to revert to their earliest patterns of responses. The problem is, sometimes thats not the right response.

During a badly bounced landing for example, the pilot has very little altitude and airspeed to use in trying to execute a go around or other recovery. In most aircraft, a go-around requires bringing the nose up to about 5 degrees above the horizon and adding full power.

Thats apparently what the crew of a Twin Otter tried to do after a bounced landing. This tale isnt…

The National Transportation Safety Board has created a wish list describing its most-wanted transportation safety improvements. When it comes to aviation issues, the board specifies three areas where the FAA should take action to make flying safer.

The first, reducing runway incursions, is already on the FAAs hit list as well. Control of airplanes on the ground is problematic for the FAA because the pilots (and drivers) who cause the problems are, for the most part, oblivious to the problems theyre creating.

You can talk about signage and communications all you want, but after a look at the number of people who run red lights, weve concluded runway incursions are a cultural phenom…

I had read Richard Taylors article IFR for VFR Pilots [Instrument Check, May] when I encountered the following situation:

Returning to Honolulu from Molokai, the weather was gorgeous, except for a 2,500-foot overcast as we got closer to the Class B airport. It was a Kona day, meaning the winds were coming opposite the normal tradewind direction, and the runways were reversed.

This means the general aviation approach is to runway 22, with the mountains rising behind you on final. I was VFR, and given discretion on altitude plus an early landing clearance. Visibility was over 10 miles under 2,500, but there were rain pockets beyond the airport, which were thick but isolated, and…

Tucked away in labs around the country, engineers are hard at work designing the next steps in a plan that would revolutionize transportation. The goal is one any aviation buff would admire: Substantially shift personal transportation between cities from being based on personal automobiles on highways to small aircraft.

The Small Aircraft Transportation System ties together the work of other NASA and industry programs that have aimed to improve the powerplants, weather capabilities and navigation complexities of small aircraft. The visionary goal is lofty – to create a way to reduce the cost of a new jet to a point comparable to a high-end luxury vehicle in order to reduce average door-…

The accident chain, like most, was as obvious in retrospect as it was elusive at the time. Consider these links:

Link 1: The pilot and his four passengers absolutely, positively had to be at the destination, 300 miles away, by early the next morning. There was an event that could not be missed, even if it meant driving. A short weather delay would be OK, but a substantial one would not.

Link 2: The pilot had had a stressful week, with both professional and personal anxiety and bouts of poor sleep.

Link 3: He had gone out with friends the night before the anticipated flight, returning home well after midnight and facing an early wakeup call.

Link 4: Th…