Pilot Proficiency

A sad accident happened at the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, India, that should remind us all about the dangers of getting too close to an operating aircraft engine. An Air India employee was sucked into the engine of an Airbus A319 and died from the injuries sustained from the spinning jet-engine blades. According […]

When Germanwings Flight 9525 slammed into the French Alps in March, killing all on board, many aviation experts spoke out about improving the psychological and medical testing of airline pilots. In response, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is in the process of finalizing new regulations for increased airline safety. “We need to act quickly […]

I endured two years in this man’s army during the Vietnam era (sometimes interesting, sometimes heartbreaking, mostly just mindless), had my neck broken (beaten up by a deranged young surgical patient), caught hepatitis (from a needle stick in the operating room — almost died), had prostate cancer (not amusing) and tolerated a surgical internship (in […]

Whether your airplane is approved for flight in known icing conditions or not, there are a number of common-sense strategies you can put into practice to minimize your risks of ice-related hazards. First, never take off with any amount of ice, snow or frost on your airplane. If you do, you’re a test pilot flying […]

The couriers’ taillights faded in the distance as I pulled the Piper Navajo’s rear cabin door closed and silence fell anew over the darkened North Las Vegas Airport. I clambered over the cargo net restraining nearly a hundred stacked bank bags, slid into the front left seat, and quickly went through the preflight checklist and starting flows. “Master switch on, magnetos on, mixtures rich, left fuel […]

In a move that could put some pilot logbook app makers out of business, ForeFlight has added its own integration into its popular flight planning app, allowing users to automatically log flights, track hours, review currency and receive electronic flight instructor endorsements. The new feature includes a web-based import tool that lets you pull in […]

Hair-raising footage of a business jet making an emergency belly landing at the Palm Springs International Airport in California has spread across the Web since the incident on Friday, Dec. 4. After the aircraft’s landing gear failed, the pilot made a skillful belly landing, sliding in with minimal sparks and smoke and skidding safely to […]

A loss-of-power incident is generally a survivable event as long as you keep your wits about you. One thing that could mean the difference between life and death is whether you leave the retractable gear up or down as you reach the point of your forced landing. While you and your airplane would be best […]

Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee released a final report, detailing the events that led to the AirAsia Airbus A320 crash last December that killed all 162 people on board. Bad weather did not play a role in the crash, as initially speculated; instead, system malfunction and the crew’s response were the contributing factors. The initial […]

It was a bright, bitter morning in the high desert, and a late-winter gale scoured the Inyokern, California, airport as I taxied the Piper Lance to a cavernous heap of a 1940s-vintage hangar and shut down the engine. I paused to listen to the mournful wind as it jostled the little freighter, and then gathered […]