Search Results for: maintaining your airplane

Editor’s note: Last month’s issue included a cover story on wake turbulence and how we may encounter it even when our training suggests it shouldn’t be a factor in our operations. This article is a companion piece, featuring a deeper dive into wake turbulence characteristics and behavior to help us predict where it is and […]

Milestones are something we often observe to bring back good memories or special occasions, like birthdays and anniversaries. We may also use them as an occasion to reflect on our successes and failures, and to measure our life progress. Few other activities as aviation count ratings obtained, hours flown, accident-free operation and other parameters as […]

If you subscribe to the philosophy that pilots love to help other pilots and enjoy building camaraderie as they work to improve general aviation for the greater good, you need not look any farther than South Carolina’s Triple Tree Aerodrome (TTA) to see this in action during their planned 2020 season. At the aerodrome’s many […]

It was a cold February morning on the way to Europe in a single-engine Cessna 210. I was enjoying the performance and steady rumble of the big-bore Continental IO-55O engine. I had my little red booklet on the dash where I continually scribbled down speeds, fuel burn and temperatures as part of my performance log. […]

I learned to fly about 25 years ago, and it’s no exaggeration to say it changed my life. I started flight training as a fairly immature teenager and ended it as a confident and independent young adult. I learned a lot about engines and weather, but much more important were the lessons on self-reliance, problem-solving […]

The plane was configured for landing with full flaps, a rich-enough mixture and the prop set for high RPM. I was decelerating from crossing the fence at 70 KIAS. As I pulled off some of the remaining power and began to flare, the bottom fell out about 25 feet above the runway. I already had established a nose-up attitude for the tricycle-gear airplanes touchdown, but our descent rate suddenly increased sharply as the gusty crosswind basically disappeared at the wrong time. To compensate, I pulled back on the yoke even more, increasing our pitch attitude in the hope doing so would compensate for the sudden loss of altitude and I could salvage a smooth touchdown. But it was not to be. For the first time in a long time, I really bounced the landing. Both main struts contacted the paved runway at the same time, compressed and then extended, pushing us back in the air. There we were, maybe six or eight feet in above the runway, with idle power and decaying airspeed. What to do?

I spend a lot of my flying in the Idaho backcountry, where there are a lot of challenging but worthwhile airstrips. But it’s not a forgiving environment since go-arounds can be problematic and density altitude means pilots may not be accustomed to the reduced performance. After decades in the business, Patrick has a lot of lived experience seeing a wide variety of crashed planes, especially in the backcountry. As a window into answering the eternal question “Why do pilots crash?” I felt his insights would be valuable.

Between an inherent tendency to procrastinate, an expectation of lowering prices and a faint hope that the 2020 deadline would—like an affordable substitute for leaded avgas—quietly recede into the indefinite future, I did nothing about ADS-B Out until late this past year. By then, it appeared that the deadline was inexorable and the hoped-for $49.95 […]

Okay, weve likely just established that your proficiency needs more than an IPC twice a year. Now, what if you flew those same procedures every month, all the way to real minimums in no guano, Batman, I cant see the runway weather? Do that every month and after a few months youd be much more proficient for that exercise. If you do it in a sim, you dont have to arrange for a safety pilot or an instructor, and you can do it whenever its convenient to your schedule.

As my simulator was nearing completion in July 2018, Carl left his company because of some conflict with their new investor, Meiya Group, chaired by Roland Pinto. I wont go into specifics, but after paying in full for my simulator about 18 months ago, Mr. Pinto ultimately ignored all my attempts to get my sim. The Cirrus Owners & Pilots Association, another big proponent of FlyThisSim (FTS), has now advised their members, Any dealing with FTS is at high risk of non-delivery and potential loss of funds exchanged.