Pilot Proficiency

OK, here’s an admission: I rarely look at other aviation publications unless there’s an article about somebody who intrigues me, like Bill Lear Jr. or “Fish” Salmon, or something in the “I think I’m supposed to know this but I don’t” category, like the difference between Fowler, Krueger, Gouge, Fairey-Youngman and Gurney flaps. But I […]

Through the darkness across the Hudson River, New York City’s dazzling all-night light show served as the backdrop for the Beech Baron’s descent into Teterboro Airport. For the relatively inexperienced pilot in the left seat, this was a golden opportunity to sit beside the company’s high-time training captain and soak up knowledge from the veteran […]

If it’s been a while since you’ve had the chance to enjoy some backcountry flying, come along for the ride as this bush pilot makes an approach into Simonds, a 900-foot Idaho airstrip at an elevation of 5,243 feet. Beware, though. The location and rugged nature of this remote strip have caused the Forest Service […]

Talk about sticking the landing. Flying reader Mike Reardon sent us this YouTube video of his misfortunate gear-up landing recently in his Beech Bonanza — which could have been a lot worse if not for the excellent pilot technique he exhibited. Reardon opted to perform an emergency landing in Hyannis, Massachusetts, after his nose gear […]

In the wake of a “cluster” of recent GA accidents, AOPA’s Air Safety Institute is urging pilots to take a pre-holiday “safety pause” to consider the risks of upcoming travel between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Noting that the pressure of completing holiday travel plans can increase the risk of a given flight, AOPA is […]

The U.K.’s air traffic control entity, NATS, has released the third in a series of computer-animated videos showing air traffic over Europe, and this is possibly the coolest one yet. Focusing on 24 hours of air traffic over the United Kingdom, the video shows the usual influx of morning traffic over the North Atlantic tracks […]

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 […]