Pilot Proficiency

Now this is what we’d call a perfect landing. Footage recently resurfaced of an AV-8B Harrier landing on the USS Bataan without its nose gear. After experiencing a front landing gear malfunction, U.S. Marine Corps Capt. William Mahoney had to perform a blind vertical landing on the ship onto the specially designed support — and […]

From the early days of aviation, hangars have been used to protect airplanes and the people who fly and work on them. The Wright brothers, who have been recognized as the first to fly a powered airplane, used two wooden sheds — one as a workshop and the other as a hangar — to protect […]

In the summer of 1967 I was a 16-year-old student pilot flying out of Cornelia Fort Airpark in Nashville, Tennessee. This historic airport had been around since 1944 and was still surrounded by farmland. I had been flying since I was 14 with the local Civil Air Patrol unit. By the time I decided to […]

The pilot in the left seat of the Piper Arrow was a 33,000-hour ATP; his right-seat companion had a private ticket and less than 200 hours. The two took off from Racine, Wisconsin, on a midsummer afternoon and headed northward, just off the western shore of Lake Michigan. There were scattered clouds at 3,400 feet […]

You’ve never seen anything like this. Extremely strong winds at the USAF Academy Airfield in Colorado Springs, Colorado, caused a dangerous emergency situation for pilots of four tow planes sitting on the tarmac as a 55-knot spring gust front swept across the airport recently. Two of the four pilots were forced to take to the […]

Little more than a century after mankind made the first ever powered human flight, aviation has completely transformed the world in which we live, connecting cities across the oceans and people all over the planet within just hours time. While it might not seem so amazing as you’re standing in security lines in some of […]

A passenger was killed and the captain nearly struck by a bullet on Tuesday night as gunmen opened fire on an airliner landing at the main airport in Peshawar, Pakistan. According to news reports, a female passenger sitting next to her daughter died in the attack and two flight attendants were injured when at least […]

The more intimate your relationship is with your airplane, the better prepared you are to provide the airplane with a long, healthy life and, more importantly, you will be more acutely aware of when something is not quite right. You are much more likely to be able to accurately diagnose a problem quickly if you […]

Mira Slovak, also known as “The Poor Refugee,” passed away this week at the age of 84. While not very well known to our generation, Slovak became a legend when he won the very first National Championship Air Races’ Unlimited Category, flying an F8F Bearcat, in 1964. Slovak didn’t cross the finish line first, but […]

Need a quick pick-me-up to carry you through the rest of the work week? This video will likely do the trick. Shot by a couple of pilots flying over the Judith River in beautiful north-central Montana, the footage captures a one-of-a-kind flying experience over some of America’s most breathtaking terrain. We only wish we could […]