Search Results for: general aviation inc

Troubling words from a pilots mouth: Uh, where were we?

Driving the airplane to and from the runway is a piece of cake, right? Not for the dozens who prang something each year.

You can fly convective conditions without radar or Stormscope. Remain visual, use ground radar and cut your losses early.

So there you are, sitting in your airplane, gazing dreamily at the new GPS, MFD, and autopilot on which youve just spent almost as much as you originally paid for the plane. Now youre faced with an IFR approach-certified GPS interconnected to a two-axis autopilot with ILS coupling and a moving map the size of a portable TV screen.

Maybe youre about to check out in a brand-new C-172 or Piper Archer with a whole pile of ultra-modern avionics, and all the FBOs other airplanes have a pair of Narco MK 12s or King KX-175s. You cant even find the on-off switch, much less tune the comm radio. How do you learn to use all that stuff?

If its your airplane, you might call your friendly loca…

A friend assures me that he has developed a sure-fire method to duck out of jury duty. When the defense poses the first voir dire question, merely reply: Well, the police wouldnt have arrested him if he wasnt guilty.

If the judge doesnt threaten contempt, the defense attorney will immediately conclude that no one could possibly be that dumb. On the other hand, on the off chance that someone could, using up a challenge is cheap insurance. Next juror, please.

The irony of this absurdity is that in such life-and-death matters as jury trials, were spring-loaded to doubt the governments pronouncements. Yet as pilots, most of us react in the opposite way when confronted with ATC clear…

At a recent international symposium on aviation human factors, one of the interesting sessions described an FAA study attempting to answer what traits might predict accident prone pilots.

A number of large aviation organizations – airframe manufacturers, airlines, pilot organizations and the NASA Ames human factors directorate – sent representatives to engage in what turned out to be a lively and interesting discussion. In the study, more than 4,000 pilots were asked to answer various questions about their background, training and attitudes. Among those who answered the survey, about half had experienced an official accident. The survey was structured to obtain a fairly representative s…

Take an 80-degree summer afternoon, clear skies, high pressure and light winds. Add an airplane, a friend or spouse, and pick a destination a few hours away. While youre at it, throw in the family dog.

This is a scenario many general aviation pilots would consider the ultimate in personal aviation – the perfect time to embark on what may be the perfect trip. For one Colorado pilot, however, the prognosis wasnt so sunny.

The pilot had accumulated more than 14,500 hours, many of them as a Part 135 helicopter pilot. He had single and multi ratings and instrument ratings for both airplanes and helicopters. He had once been a flight instructor. Even though he was retired, he still held a…

As the Airport Director of the DeKalb Peachtree Airport, I must take great umbrage with The Clock Runs Out [Accident Probe, June]. It is apparent and unfortunate that Mr. Ibold either did not read the final NTSB report, or, at the very least, took great literary license in his interpretation of the report.

To intimate the fire response crew did anything wrong is totally without merit.

Because PDK is the second-busiest airport in Georgia, our ARFF crew gets to practice responding to many alerts throughout the year in all types of weather conditions. Responding to this specific alert was almost second nature to them in communicating with the tower and in responding to a staging locat…

Severe turbulence on a clear day…or what my glider rating should have taught me.

I fly a Cessna 340 mostly for business on the West Coast. The weather in southern California was fairly typical on this early June day, with fog along the coast and clear inland.

I hadnt flown for several weeks, so I thought I would fly up to Tehachapi from my home base of Palomar Airport near San Diego for my $400 hamburger. The instrument departure was uneventful as I canceled IFR and continued on the 35 minute flight VFR with flight following.

The air was smooth at 12,500 feet, even though the winds were reported at 25-30 knots almost directly on the nose. I started my descent for Tehachapi and…

Most airplane owners whove been in the game awhile have a history. Even those with money to burn rarely start out with a high-performance single or a twin as a first airplane. Somewhere in the past, they probably owned a modest four-place, fixed-gear single, what well call an SE cruiser.

You know the species: Something with a bit more panache – and power – than an entry level model that doubles as a trainer but something less than a 300 HP retractable.

Specifically, we have in mind this list: Cessnas 177 Cardinal, 182 Skylane, Pipers Archer and Dakota, the Grumman Tiger and, as a lesser player, the Aerospatiale TB10 Tobago. Sure, the list could be expanded but lets be reasonable….