Pilot Proficiency

We were bumping through the clouds at Flight Level 300, unable to escape the clutches of a low, winter jet stream thanks to 167 burly souls on board and 26,000 pounds of jet-A sloshing in the tanks. Under such conditions this McDonnell Douglas finds itself just a little short of wing, and the prudent pilot […]

After just over two years of flying our Comanche, Martha and I “needed” a second engine, and more knobs, levers, switches and gauges. In short, we “needed” a Twin Comanche. But we couldn’t afford one. That’s why the “bargain” Twin Comanche in Trade-A-Plane caught our eye. We knew the airplane would be rough, but we […]

Three members of Osama bin Laden’s family were killed on Friday when the Embraer Phenom 300 twinjet they were aboard crashed on approach to Blackbushe Airport west of London. UK officials confirmed those killed in the crash were Saudi nationals visiting England on vacation, as well as their pilot. The Saudi-registered Phenom reportedly crashed into […]

We all strive for landings that are silky smooth, where the wheels of the airplane appear to kiss the ground before they slowly roll to a stop. But in addition to making a soft touchdown a priority, you should have an area on the runway in mind as the touchdown zone. If you are not […]

“Cessna 53223 cleared to Runway 18 via Charlie taxiway, Pasquale 3 departure, squawk bingo.” That’s a typical controller clearance for my friend Charlie Peck. Charlie is retired from IBM and flies his Cessna 172 nearly every good weather day. He keeps it at the Portland International Jetport in Portland, Maine. The Auburn-Lewiston airport is his […]

Investigators say part of a wing that washed up on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean came from a Boeing 777, making it appear likely that searchers have gotten their first big break in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. French investigators will check a number found on the wing part, thought to […]

The National Transportation Safety Board has concluded its investigation into the fatal accident involving Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. The space ship disintegrated during a test flight on October 31, 2014, resulting in the death of copilot Michael Alsbury. The NTSB concluded that Scaled Composites, the contractor for the program, failed to “consider and protect against the […]

We have witnessed some pretty challenging crosswind landings in the U.K. recently, but this might be a landing to top even the most hair-raising descents. Last weekend a KLM Boeing 777 was captured on video — that has since gone viral — while making its way into Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport during what is being called […]

It was a Cessna 340A model and I was the PIC. A sleek, powerful and very cool looking twin-engine airplane, the 340A is powered by two Continental 310-­horsepower engines. Regarded as a “pilot’s airplane,” it has good performance characteristics (airspeed and rate of climb) as reflected by a power loading of 10.48 pounds per horsepower, […]

A Mooney M20J with two aboard, flown by a 300-hour private pilot, began its takeoff roll on Runway 19 at Kansas City Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC) at intersection Kilo, with 5,313 feet of runway remaining. The pilot retracted the landing gear immediately after liftoff and began a climb, whereupon the engine lost power. […]