Social media was abuzz over the weekend after a 26-year-old unidentified man was found alive after flying from Guatemala (MGGT) to Miami International Airport (KMIA) in the wheel well of a Boeing 737-800.
I’m going to go out on a fairly stout limb with this statement: No pilot ever plans to become an accident statistic. Instead, we all approach every flight in the firm belief it will be successful or we don’t fly. Too often, of course, events conspire against us—or we screw up—and the flight’s outcome isn’t […]
I made another long cross-country in October, of about the same length as the one I documented in September’s issue (“If X, Then Y”). This one didn’t feature airport fuel farms with no 100LL, or a thunderstorm right over my destination when I wanted to use it, however. In fact, after delaying my planned departure for […]
The typical personal airplane lacks many creature comforts we’ve come to expect in private transportation. Perhaps foremost among them is air conditioning, but the cabin heat systems also can leave a lot to be desired, especially among piston singles. The primary reason is that the vast majority of these airplanes employ air-cooled engines, unlike the […]
One thing all pilots feel at some point on any flight is a sense of pressure. On a good-day local flight, it could be something as simple and routine as wanting to make an “are-we-down-yet-smooth” landing to impress someone. At the other extreme might be a boss who absolutely, positively needs to be at a […]
My first flight instructor’s words from decades ago are stuck with me: “Glide, grass, gas,” he said, and then repeated it. “Glide, grass, gas.” He was talking about engine failures, and these three little words are a nice mental checklist for what to do when the engine of a single-engine airplane stops. Glide: Fly at […]
The master caution light started throbbing its insistent message—something was wrong with the airplane. Our pilot looked up at the annunciator panel and saw a yellow light: “Door Seal.” Did our pilot get excited, become distracted or, worse yet, panic? No. She reached down for the “Emergency/Abnormal Procedures” checklist. Calmly turning to the back cover, […]
I’m a firm believer in using supplemental oxygen; there’s a portable O2 tank in my airplane right now. For a variety of reasons, I usually go on oxygen when I’m going to be at 10,000 feet or higher for any length of time. I typically fly long legs, and when I use oxygen, I’m not […]
A good landing is any landing you walk away from. A great landing is when you can use the airplane again. Who doesn’t enjoy the classics? As humorous as these sayings can be, they occasionally do contain some nuggets of wisdom. For example, I would consider Captain Sully’s landing in the Hudson River a good landing, […]
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