IFR

Single-pilot IFR is the hardest thing most people will ever do. If you’re a heart surgeon, you might disagree, but for almost everyone else, there’s nothing that compares. The combination of high stakes and an unrelenting workload makes for a unique challenge, and there’s no undo button. Instrument training should embrace that challenge, with a […]

I live in the Deep South, and I emerge from summer begging for a massive cold front to clear the Florida/Georgia state line and bring some ­much-needed relief from the blistering heat and stifling humidity. Come the end of September, I am aching for sight of high cirrus, introducing a phalanx of low cumulus, chased […]

What goes before that, in planning and training, determines what kind of instrument pilot emerges from the process. Here we want to go through what it takes to produce the best and most complete instrument-rated pilot. When we were writing about learning to fly, it was suggested that a private pilot course should be completed […]

Twenty-five years ago, a Seattle-area pilot tried to do his mother a favor. He would take her to visit a friend on the other side of the Cascades. Their route would go through the Snoqualmie Pass, which, on the day of the trip, was unfortunately beset by fog and low-lying clouds. The pilot was instrument-rated, […]

“Hey, Dick. Just so you know, the airport is closed.” It’s Max calling from the FBO in Lebanon, New Hampshire, about an hour before our proposed takeoff time. “There’s ice on the runway; they are scraping it now. If we can just get a little more sun, it won’t take long before they’ll open 18/36.” […]

Gaithersburg is the choice for many pilots who don’t want to fly into Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) or aren’t able to fly into Washington’s Reagan National Airport (DCA). The Montgomery County Airpark (GAI) sits roughly 25 miles north of the nation’s capital, making for a short drive to downtown Washington. The airpark’s single 4,202-foot […]

Traditionally, the purpose of an instrument approach is to stabilize the pilot and the aircraft, lined up with the runway and in just the right position from which to land. Well, not in this case. The localizer directional aid approach, also commonly called the “localizer darn angle” approach, lines the aircraft up to the airport […]

It’s a change that has been a long time in coming, and thanks to the proliferation of flight-planning apps it won’t have much of a practical impact, but the FAA confirms that starting at the end of next month pilots must file IFR flight plans using the international ICAO format. The new format appears on […]

Like many aviation enthusiasts, my introduction to general aviation and piston airplanes was Flying magazine. As a kid in the 1990s, I always looked forward to heading to the barbershop with my dad where I could read the latest copy of Flying while waiting my turn for a haircut. I hoped to see a full […]

The 2019 edition of Sporty’s instrument rating course is now available, and it’s a major update incorporating hours of all-new HD video content, “smart” study tools and the ability to switch among multiple viewing formats (Web, Android, iPhone/iPad and Apple TV). Best of all, the course includes all of this for one price. Price for […]