Search Results for: maintaining your airplane

Anyone who’s taken more than a couple of flying lessons has been exposed to simulated failure of a single-engine airplane’s powerplant. For ab initio students, the first engine-out drill often is a demonstration that the airplane won’t fall out of the sky and that the situation can be managed to successfully get on the ground […]

I do a lot of the regular (read: “preventive”) maintenance on my airplanes. For example, I’ve gotten oil changes down to a fine art and usually can perform all the related hands-on tasks in under 30 minutes, including safety-wiring the new filter. I typically drain the used oil overnight, though, and let each plastic bottle of […]

Retractable landing gear seems to have fallen out of favor among designers and manufacturers of new piston singles. Cessna hasn’t made a retractable single since the mid-1980s. Today’s most popular single-engine piston airplanes, the Cirrus SR20 and 22, have fixed gear. In fact, 2019 member-company data from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association show a grand […]

Most of us spend our time aloft droning along in straight-and-level flight. For the typical pilot, turns are reserved for the traffic pattern or flying an approach, and occasionally for entering a holding pattern or performing a course reversal. And we rarely exceed 30 degrees of bank. On one hand, that’s okay, since our relative […]

For the most part, flying a multi-engine airplane is just like flying a single. Until an engine fails. When transitioning from a single to a conventional twin, pilots spend most of their training learning to handle engine failures and to eke out what little performance remains. In conventional twins we’re likely to fly, that means […]

Unless you’re flying a tailwheel-equipped airplane, you really don’t want the tail to touch the ground. It’s potentially dangerous, not to mention embarrassing. And a tail strike—when the tail section of an airplane contacts the surface while taking off or landing—can result in significant damage to the aft section of a tricycle-gear airplane. The good […]

A good pilot is always learning and practicing. Whether your aviating is geared toward a ratings-oriented career or just going for the occasional $100 hamburger, we all should put some effort into maintaining proficiency and enhancing related knowledge. If you’re stuck at home with nothing to do and can’t fly, how can you spend the […]

What a year the last few weeks have been. The ongoing health crisis in the U.S. and throughout the world has upended the concepts of “normal” and “everyday life” for billions. As this was being written in late March, U.S. state and local jurisdictions were competing to put into place travel restrictions, business closures, stay-at-home […]

The 31st Women in Aviation International Conference opened March 5, 2020, in Orlando, Florida, at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort. The event features speakers, scholarships, and recruitment for the aviation industry. The opening general session on Friday will kick off with Barbara Barrett, Secretary of the US Air Force, followed by Joan Robinson-Berry, vice president and […]

Information is the foundation on which air traffic control is built. Controllers absorb tons of data as we work our traffic—winds and weather conditions, advertised runways, aircraft types, filed routes, NOTAMs. The list goes on. We take all this data and use it to build sequences for arrivals and departures, and keep aircraft safely separated. […]