Pilot Proficiency

In 2012, USA Today reporter Thomas Frank was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He didn’t win. Maybe coming so close to claiming journalism’s top accolade and missing out ate at him. And so he set his sights on a tantalizing new subject – the miserable safety record of little airplanes – that could finally […]

When we make a turn in flight, why do we use the rudder? We all know from the books the answer is to “correct for adverse yaw” — which is just a fancy way of saying to overcome drag from the aileron. When you initiate a turn, which should you move first, the aileron with […]

A 21-year-old pilot who works for a skydiving company was forced to make a skydiving jump of his own — his first ever — to bail out of his Cessna 182 after a previous jumper damaged the aircraft in flight. Southern Illinois University student Shawn Kinmartin was flying south of St. Louis at 11,500 feet […]

Richard Rockefeller, the nephew of former vice president and New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, died on Friday morning when he crashed in his Piper Meridian in poor weather soon after takeoff from Westchester County Airport outside New York City. Rockefeller, 65, had flown his PA-46 from his home in Maine to celebrate his father David […]

Accident investigators are focusing on two perplexing clues as they try to determine what caused the deadly crash of Gulfstream IV in Bedford, Massachusetts, on May 31 after the jet failed to lift off from the runway during what should have been a routine takeoff. The first mystery concerns the GIV’s flaps. Investigators found the […]

_”The Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you.” _ — Max Stanley, Northrop test pilot A friend who recently launched into an RV-8 project sent me the video of an aerobatic performance by local RV guru Jon Thocker. Jon’s routine was graceful, precise and beautifully filmed, so it […]

As the gear of the Mooney 201 thumped into the wheel wells, I squinted over the glareshield at a setting sun that was transforming the horizon into a postcard of purple, yellow and red. We climbed southwestward toward the VOR that established most of the routing around our airport. It wasn’t a 777, but just […]

One of the pleasures of this job is hearing from readers. Some write to correct my errors or to note my omissions. Some are hostile, though the population recommending my immediate consignment to the infernal fires has for some reason dwindled in recent years. Maybe they went first. Some ask questions. Some of the questions […]

Reddit user Theodore Funkenstein recently released stabilized video footage of the 1968 aircraft crash that forced Neil Armstrong to bail out at low altitude, allowing a one-of-a-kind look at an event that nearly took the life of the world’s most well known astronaut. A little more than a year before his giant leap for mankind, […]

Thanks to the success of Sporty’s 2014 RV-12 Sweepstakes, the popular pilot supplies provider has once again selected the Van’s LSA for its annual airplane giveaway. One lucky winner will be awarded the two-seater on May 16, 2015, during Sporty’s annual fly-in. Individuals who make purchases at Sporty’s between May 9, 2014, and May 8, […]