Pilot Proficiency

Selfies, in case you have recently emerged from solitary confinement, are those self portraits, preferably set in interesting or unusual surroundings or amid a clump of friends, that one takes with a cellphone camera, sometimes holding it on the end of a selfie stick to gain a wider field of view. They have spawned a […]

Ratings Man is a ratings collector. No matter how many ratings or hours anyone has, he has more. Many of us go after the more common upgrades to our private pilot certificates, such as an instrument rating or high-performance and complex aircraft endorsements. Out in the wild blue yonder, we put these skills to good […]

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says the recurrent training air traffic controllers receive to teach them how to effectively deal with pilots in need of emergency assistance often falls considerably short of any acceptable standard. This is also not the first time the NTSB cited the FAA over inadequate controller training. In a Safety […]

Approaches to mountainous airports can present special challenges because of the inability to create a straightforward procedure due to sharply rising terrain. The LDA DME-1 approach to Runway 18 at Lake Tahoe Airport features many unusual aspects that pilots unaccustomed to flying in the mountains may have rarely, if ever, experienced. Have a look at […]

When I first started flying Part 135 on five-day rotations, I ­anticipated meeting up with earthbound friends on overnights in ­Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, New Haven, Boston and Bozeman. I further expected to fetch up in various locales with flying friends on their trips. For airline friends, I thought Baltimore, New York, LA, Oakland, […]

There are airplanes out there, and I know it because they’re all stepping on each other over the radio. The CTAF is a cacophony of squeaks, squawks and indecipherable gibberish clearly announcing that everyone and their brother is flying today. And why not? It’s a gorgeous Saturday in coastal California. It would be nice to […]

With loss of control still the No. 1 cause of fatalities in commercial and general aviation, Aviation Performance Solutions (APS) in Mesa, Arizona, said last week that a college student, Chin-An Lin, had completed the company’s Upset Prevention and Recovery course. Chin-An, an international Aeronautical Science student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, received the training under […]

“Keep it in tight.” These words, sometimes uttered by frazzled tower controllers working busy traffic patterns, should set off a pilot’s internal master caution alarm. Loss of control is now the No. 1 killer in general aviation and a high safety priority on the radar screens of both the National Transportation Safety Board and the […]

When my cellphone buzzed to life at 0402, I knew it wouldn’t be good news. (A phone call at that time of morning is never good news.) The caller ID displayed “Crew Schedule.” According to the dim red glow of the alarm clock, my reserve assignment period had just begun two minutes prior. I hadn’t […]

The flying Franklins started with Kyle’s grandfather, Oliver Gene “Zip” Franklin, who bought a 1929 Doyle Special at the age of 16. The eldest Franklin mainly used airplanes as farm equipment to fly between two family ranches, and he had his son Jimmy with him in the cockpit while still in diapers before the lad […]