Search Results for: oxygen

A few years ago, an engineer, friend and pilot shared a story about retrieving his Cessna 182RG from the paint shop. Before he took the plane out for a run-up and test flight, he asked his even more meticulous engineer-spouse do the preflight. When she did, she discovered something rather important. The bolts and nuts that connected the elevators were just hand-tightened, unsecured by cotter pins. The bolts and nuts securing the primary pitch control surfaces were essentially ready to fall out. Not good. My friend managed a major nuclear facility in Idaho, and he shared the story with his workforce as an example why operators should trust, but verify others work.

Some time ago, you studied the FAAs charts and learned all of the symbology and the various altitude restrictions like MEA, MOCA, MCA, and probably MRA and others. But, if youre like most of us, youve forgotten a lot of that. But, these altitudes are important. After all, if you go lower, you might hit something. Perhaps a review is in order.

“Stop, you’re getting your head down. Tell the pilot monitoring what you need. You seem to want to do everything by yourself.” So said Capt. Andy when I was the pilot flying early in my tenure on the Cessna Citation CJ3 at JetSuite. He was right. Up until then, all my flying had been single […]

With all the features pilots appreciated in the original, the new ProFlight Series 2 starts at $995.95 and offers significant improvements based on pilot feedback. From 11/24/19 to 01/04/20, get free Bose QuietComfort 20 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones when you purchase a ProFlight Series 2 or A20 headset, plus 10% off each additional headset purchased. […]

Scott Farnsworth is a California native, ­airline captain and the owner of Farnsworth Aerosports. He is a proud father and ­husband who started flying airplanes at the age of 15 while working odd jobs ­including washing aircraft to fund his flying. He was determined and focused on becoming a pilot, and by age 22, he […]

It should be obvious that we never say the words, Declare, Emergency, Mayday, or Pan-Pan unless we indeed have a dire situation. These words have the potential to flip a controllers airspace upside down faster than a Vmc roll, so they should be used with discretion. Even saying Declare by itself could lead us to believe that assistance is needed, as well as Pan-Pan (Urgent condition). Because Pan-Pan is considered an urgent condition (maybe not a full-blown emergency), it has the potential to turn into Mayday (Distress) so we mostly treat it as such.

Time to check Off-Route Obstruction Clearance Altitudes. These start at 3400 to 4000 feet then quickly get up to 6000. The terrain continues to rise towards 8000 feet past Scottsbluff. Uh, were not in Minnesota anymore. OROCAs, as defined by the Instrument Procedures Handbook, are for situational awareness and emergency use. While OROCAs provide standard obstacle clearance margins (1000 feet in non-mountainous areas), you cant count on them. You decide its safest to file for 8000 feet.

In 1986, I flew a Beechcraft Baron 58 each night carrying canceled bank checks from Baltimore to Richmond, Virginia; Charlotte, North Carolina; Philadelphia and back to BWI, departing at about 10 p.m. and returning by 6 a.m. the next morning. I was part of a network of check-carrying general aviation aircraft that crisscrossed the nation […]

A human brain slowly deprived of its normal oxygen supply, called hypoxia— especially if it happens to someone in command of an airplane–can create strange behavior the affected aviator may not even recognize. The FAA says the most common causes of hypoxia in pilots are: flying non-pressurized aircraft above 10,000 ft without supplemental oxygen, rapid […]

It’s been said that there is no such thing as a perfect flight. I know I’ve never come close. On most flights I can admit to some minor imperfection even before engine start. Though I’d like to think that none of these common omissions or out of sequence commissions are dangerous, I can think of […]