Search Results for: maintaining your airplane

I will never forget my first time in true IMC. It was about halfway through my instrument training, during the winter months of New England. There were always challenges getting actual IMC experience; most of the quality clouds contained icing that prohibited any safe training. Finally, it was a warm day with the freezing levels up […]

The FAA defines a slip as a condition in which the airplane’s bank angle is “too steep for the existing rate of turn.” In other words, the airplane is not in coordinated flight, which in fact could be the pilot’s desire. For example, slipping is a time-honored way to lose altitude quickly in an airplane […]

The abstracts below derive from ASRS reports on Inflight Weather Encounters involving IFR. They illustrate a variety of real-world IFR weather problems and solutions. If Mother Nature throws you a curve, something you learn here might help someday. The Icicle Twin An ATC supervisor in Boston Center asked a controller/pilot to assist with an emergency […]

About one-third of Recreational Aviation Foundation members have used LSAs at
remote strips.

After a hiatus, a “rusty pilot” tries out a state-of-the-art SLSA.

Short-field landings have been part of my flying right from the onset of private pilot training. My instructor had flown in the Alaska Bush, and was very comfortable operating out of short airports, grass or otherwise. The go-to runways near me were Cranland Airport (28M), in Hanson, Mass., and Myricks Airport (1M8) in Berkley, Mass. […]

A Twitter acquaintance recently posted a link to a Cessna 172N Skyhawk that was for sale. His comment had to with the Apollo 618 Loran C navigator and ADF receiver the airplane still had in it: “Why would you choose to list a Loran and an ADF in your aircraft sale description?“ It’s a good question, […]

When your instrument ticket was brand new your skills were ultra-sharp. But over time, winter doldrums, aircraft maintenance, etc. that proficiency atrophied. Indeed, research backs up the “use it or lose it” proficiency adage—see the sidebar. Flying in IMC is unforgiving, with the chance of an occupant perishing in an accident nine times higher than […]

Here are the things you really should not do when maintaining an airplane.

Somewhere, as you read this, an advanced pilot candidate is decrying the need to master the so-called commercial maneuvers. “You’ll never hear ATC call and say, ‘Give me a Lazy 8 for spacing,’” they might say. And they’d probably be right. The thing is, many of the maneuvers we must master to pass a practical […]