Pilot Proficiency

You may be intimidated by the thought of international flying, particularly with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Electronic Advance Passenger Information System — eAPIS — which was implemented in 2009. While you are subjected to major fines if you don’t comply, it is not a very complicated system. It simply involves an online portal […]

In our FBO Spotlight series, we’re highlighting FBOs around the country that have received rave reviews from our readers. This latest Spotlight is brought to you by Nick Fahim, who has recently flown into Eagle Creek Airpark Airport in Indianapolis, Indiana, in a Piper Dakota PA28-236. Here’s what he had to say about the airport’s […]

In December, Reuters reported that Chinese authorities are requiring pilots flying into Beijing Capital International Airport in the northeastern outskirts of the city to improve their landing capabilities in low visibility conditions. The airport has been suffering chronic flight delays due to poor visibility caused by smog. Now there is word out of China that […]

Most pilots who have been flying for a while know pilots who scare them. My husband, John, and I were two of those pilots. We were so wrapped up in using our airplane as a personal, fun traveling machine that we would not let anything — inexperience, nighttime, bad weather, even a rough-running engine — […]

Since 1997, Cessna has been telling pilots of most of its light twins not to fly in known icing — but not all, as a previous report in Flying‘s eNewsletter suggested. Cessna issued a Mandatory Service Bulletin back then (MEB97-4) requiring that those twins not approved for flight in known icing (FIKI) have placards installed […]

After 18 years in business, one of the world’s coolest aviation attractions, Kermit Weeks’ Fantasy of Flight, will close as a public attraction as of April 6, according to an announcement released by the organization today. Located just off of I-4 less than half an hour southwest of Orlando, Fantasy of Flight offers a world-class […]

The pilot of a Marine F/A-18 operating on a training flight with the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center in Nevada was killed when his airplane crashed in the desert about 70 miles from Naval Air Station Fallon on Saturday, the Navy said. The single-seat F/A-18C was a Marine jet on loan to the Topgun […]

Newton’s third law states that for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This concept can be applied in the cockpit too. For each action there should be an appropriate reaction. There are many levers, knobs and buttons and it is quite easy to mistakenly grab or push the wrong one. To ensure […]

We pilots love engines and with good reason. We rely on their continued trouble-free operation to keep us flying safely. Perhaps more to the point, without engines, flight would never have gone far, and it can be argued that every noteworthy advance in aircraft performance was preceded by a noteworthy advance in power-plant design. There […]

If you’re a private pilot or an airline transport pilot, it doesn’t take long to discover that the “small world” axiom is very true within the aviation community. A relationship developed years earlier can resurface in the most unlikely places. Because of that, I was given advice to never burn a bridge in my climb […]