Pilot Proficiency

An Aero Commander 500 missed an elderly couple by inches when it crashed into their Chicago home minutes after taking off from Chicago Midway Airport early Tuesday morning, officials said. The pilot of the twin-engine cargo plane, the only person on board, was found dead at the scene of the crash, which occurred at about […]

While the weather data that we can now collect live in the cockpit on our avionics suites or on a portable tablet is fairly well updated and accurate, there is some weather information that can only be delivered by a human inside a cockpit. Critical information, such as cloud tops, cloud layers, turbulence and icing […]

Lately I’ve grown convinced that it’s only a matter of time before a rogue quadracopter collides with an airplane or helicopter in flight, possibly sending innocent victims plummeting to their deaths. For a few brief moments last month, I worried I might be among the first casualties. Knowing what I do now, I probably should […]

If you haven’t checked out the new interactive Flight Path Tool at the Aviation Weather Center on aviationweather.gov, you owe it to yourself to have a look. Representatives from Jeppesen provided a great overview of the FPT at the recent Flying Aviation Expo in Palm Springs, California, during a series of well-attended IFR pilot proficiency […]

The ready availability of small, light video cameras has produced an outburst of visual autobiography. Hardly anyone seems to be able to resist the temptation to strap a camera to his head and do something that he, or someone else, may later find exciting or impressive. Skiers, skateboarders and sky divers are particularly enamored of […]

Search and rescue teams from the Air Force and Coast Guard have found the remains of the pilot who was flying an F-16 that crashed in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday morning about 57 miles off the coast of Panama City, Florida. It is not known whether the pilot attempted to eject from the airplane […]

Through the magic of the Internet, I learned an important lesson recently about a flight that I piloted 40 years ago this month. I was a lucky kid who grew up around small airplanes. My father, a physician, had a 90 hp Cub on floats that he kept on the St. Lawrence River in front […]

One of many dangerous situations that can arise in the cockpit is when there is confusion about who is flying the airplane. Whether you are transferring control to an autopilot, a copilot or a student, it is critical that you verify that the transfer is complete and that the other source knows that it, he […]

The inaugural Flying Aviation Expo is in the books and I’ve got to tell you, I’m a little bummed. It’s that same post-show letdown I get after each Sun ‘n Fun and Oshkosh. I’m completely worn out from the frenzy of it all, and still, I didn’t want the party to end. In the case […]

The test pilot who was killed in last Friday’s crash of** Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo** prematurely unlocked the craft’s feathering tail structure, most likely leading to a catastrophic inflight breakup high over the Mojave Desert, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Acting NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart said the error was made by 39-year-old copilot Michael […]