Search Results for: maintaining your airplane

“Always have an out.” That’s what my roommate and more experienced pilot buddy warned me about flying in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). It was sage advice when this story took place, 24 years ago. I had arrived in Pontiac, Michigan, from the Deep South in January to begin a “dream job” of flying on-demand cargo […]

Anyone who’s picked up the phone to obtain a weather briefing from an FAA Flight Service Station (FSS) in recent weeks has discovered the ongoing consolidation by federal contractor Lockheed Martin (LockMart) isn’t going so well.

As a single-engine airplane flight instructor serving members of my home airports flying clubs, Ive learned there are many ways to safely bring an airplane back to earth, though some are more elegant than others. But the one maneuver that shows me for certain whether an individual is ready for his or her first solo or is worthy of a flight review endorsement is the go-around, or aborted landing.

Just let me know if theres anything I can do” is a common request of the non-rated passengers Ive carried aloft from time to time. Usually, we dont even get to that point; the idea of going up in a personal aircraft is sufficiently foreign to most non-pilots they cant even conceive of helping minimize the workload. They also dont understand theyre contributing to it. Passengers unfamiliar with the concept often are a necessary evil of flying personal aircraft. Having been both the PIC and the pax over the years, Ive seen the phenomenon from both sides. Most of the time, some patience, understanding and smooth flying on a good-weather day is all the pilot needs to assure a pleasant experience for the pax and a safe flight.

Axioms about landing abound in aviation. Sayings such as “flying is the second greatest thrill known to man; landing is the first” and “any landing you can walk away from is a good landing” are among the most popular. You also hear colorful language applied to the landing process: A greaser is good; crow-hopping, porpoising, groundlooping are bad.

When I first started writing about small airplane shared ownership options back in 1998, there weren’t a lot of choices available. OurPlane had been doing business for a while and had locations (and an airplane or two) at several airports in the United States and Canada. Down in Atlanta, another company, AirShares Elite, was just […]

The most common type of airplane accident involves departure from the runway on landing. Some pilots lose control and go off the side of the runway with plenty of pavement remaining, but many others simply run out of room and go off the end. The FAA and NTSB are so concerned about landing runway accidents […]

Constantly evaluating our progress means more than glancing at the moving map. We also need to expect the unexpected and be prepared to change our plans.

Landing is only part of the story; you still have to stop. How you use your brakes can mean the difference between book performance and a trip through the weeds.

It has been 50 years since Safe Flight Instrument Company developed the first practical autothrottle system but only a small minority of pilots have been able to fly this most useful and safety enhancing equipment. But that is starting to change. Safe Flight is now offering its AutoPower system in midsize business jets, when before […]