Pilot Proficiency

Schweizer 269C Newberg, Oregon / Injuries: 2 Fatal The instructor and student were conducting a night orientation flight. According to a witness who worked for the operator, about 15 minutes after the helicopter departed, he heard what sounded like an engine rollback and the helicopter making an autorotation. This was followed by the sound of […]

“The entire normal operating checklist for the new Embraer Phenom 100 light business jet fits on both sides of a laminated card that you can slide into a shirt pocket,” former Flying editor Mac McClellan wrote approvingly in his 2009 report on the airplane. “The Phenom is designed to cut pilot workload to a minimum […]

The RNAV approach is a type of GPS-based procedure that is becoming ubiquitous in general aviation as the FAA continues to roll it out at thousands of airports around the United States. If you’re adept at flying an ILS approach, RNAV LPV procedures (offering “localizer performance with vertical guidance”) should be very familiar to you, […]

Shakespeare wrote that “brevity is the soul of wit,” but apparently that memo never made it to 800 Independence Ave. Any pilot who has spent more than a few minutes doing battle with the 3-inch-thick book of federal aviation regulations knows the FAA specializes in long, complex rules that try to cover every possible scenario. […]

My wife was loading the Freedom Machine with luggage and our three young sons as I entered the Greater Cincinnati FBO to file IFR for the flight back to Cleveland. A TV with the Bengals-Browns game caught my attention. It was the close-up of a Browns lineman with a wet jersey filling the screen that […]

Flying a jet for a living isn’t always beer and Skittles, and if you doubt me, just turn a few pages and Les Abend and Dick Karl will set you straight. Between maintenance snafus, nasty weather, ATC delays, long days and short nights, sometimes it’s real honest-to-goodness work. This, however, was not one of those […]

First developed in World War II, TKS systems were created for Royal Air Force bombers as an alternative to pneumatic boot deicing. Today, the technology continues to buy crucial time for pilots as they work to implement exit strategies when faced with dangerous icing conditions. How It Works TKS systems dispense an ethylene glycol-based fluid with a freezing […]

When the airplane entered the clouds, there was no turning back.

The migratory white stork has been a welcome visitor to Europe for centuries. It seems to display a peculiar affinity for human beings, building its huge stick nests on their rooftops and chimneys, foraging in their fields, and playing starring roles in their myths and legends. It eats mice and rats, is thought to bring […]

Piper PA-24 Sturgis, South Dakota / Injuries: 1 Serious, 1 Minor The pilot reported that he was conducting an instrument approach in instrument meteorological conditions. Upon reaching the decision altitude, the front-seat passenger reported the runway was in front of the airplane. The pilot looked up from the instruments, but could not see the runway […]