Pilot Proficiency

Chief pilot of Virgin Galactic, Dave Mackay, gave his first media interview regarding the tragic crash of SpaceShipTwo last October. Mackay spoke about his experience, telling the BBC he was flying WhiteKnightTwo, which carried the small space airplane to 50,000 feet during the ill-fated mission. While Mackay didn’t see the accident itself, he was above […]

Following a successful inaugural event last year, Flying Magazine is once again sponsoring and hosting the Flying Aviation Expo in Palm Springs, California, this October 15-17. Several of the activities and events featured at the show will be back bigger and better, including some new premiere sponsors — Scheyden Precision Eyewear and Aircraft Spruce. To […]

The fault may have been in their stars — it would be easy to check with the help of a good astrologer — but amateur-built and otherwise non-type-certificated aircraft hit an especially rough patch in April 2014. The run of bad luck actually began a couple of weeks earlier, on Feb. 16, when the 77-year-old […]

What’s more harrowing than a tough crosswind landing? Well, a crosswind landing at night. As we’ve seen, the Birmingham Airport in the UK provides endless challenges day and night for pilots taking off and landing at the windy airport. But as daunting as the shaky ascents and descents can be, there’s no doubt that the […]

Sonex CEO Jeremy Monnett and a company mechanic were killed on Tuesday in the crash of an experimental Sonex Sport Acro at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where the company is based. The two-seat single-engine taildragger crashed into a row of Oshkosh trucks near the east end of Runway 9 for undetermined reasons. Nobody […]

It was cold. That isn’t always a bad thing. Engines have more power; wings produce greater lift (more or less). But there was also moisture. Quite a bit of it in fact. And that is just no fun when it’s below freezing. Throw in the fact that I was at the end of a long […]

If you’ve been flying for a while, you probably know of at least one person in your circle of friends who has made a very expensive mistake — starting up the engine with the towbar attached. It is a simple error but one that could cost you a new propeller and an engine overhaul. There […]

Wheels Up, the membership-based private aviation firm formed nearly two years ago by former NetJets vice chairman Kenny Dichter, is aiming to expand the private aviation customer base in the United States by millions of travelers with introduction of the industry’s first bizplane ride-sharing app. Dichter says the app will let Wheels Up members share […]

What’s the secret to making the world’s best paper airplane? Who better to ask than paper airplane world record holder John Collins, who in 2012 designed a paper airplane that flew a whopping 226 feet 10 inches. Our friends at PopSci recently caught up with Collins at the Bay Area Maker Faire, where he revealed […]

We tend to think of a sudden feeling of unease or apprehension as a bad thing, a foreboding sign that something is amiss. But as pilots, not only should we heed these uneasy feelings, we should consciously decide to welcome them as a way of eliminating risk and breaking potential links in the accident chain. […]