Pilot Proficiency

For many pilots, the thought of stepping out of the house, getting into an airplane and taxiing just a few hundred feet to the runway — all without ever touching a car door — is the ultimate fantasy. For the thousands who live in residential airparks around the country, that way of life isn’t just […]

Illustrations by Matthew Laznicka| Clayton, New Mexico — way east of the Rocky Mountains, out on the Great Plains. A humid June afternoon. We had finished up in court and were sitting around in the judge’s office. The phone rang. The judge handed it to me. My friend, the airport weather forecaster, spoke abruptly: “Margaret, […]

A new simulation scenario is available for users of the Jay flight simulator from Redbird Flight Simulations. This month Redbird presents a new scenario where aviators using the simulator will have the opportunity to fly a Maule M-7-260C ski plane from Talkeetna, Alaska, up the Ruth Glacier to the Don Sheldon Amphitheater, which is nestled […]

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, recently got an addition to its immense collection in the Boeing Aviation Hangar. Unlike some of the massive airplanes on display there, such as the Space Shuttle, SR-71 and Concorde, this new member of the Smithsonian […]

Dusty Crophopper and his flying friends are returning to the big screen this summer in a sequel to the hit Disney movie Planes. This time Dusty shifts gears from air racing to aerial firefighting in Planes: Fire & Rescue. In the sequel, due to hit theaters July 18, Dusty joins forces with veteran fire and […]

A student pilot called recently about scheduling a private practical test and mentioned that he had logged several hundred hours over a number of years. He then explained he’d surrendered his private pilot certificate after an accident — well, actually, after two accidents. Somehow he’d avoided any FAA action on the first one, a sort […]

Every pilot knows that flying is an intense mixture of uncommon rewards offset with exposure to risk. After all, while airplanes provide some of the greatest pleasures in our lifetimes, they do have to reach a lethal speed just to get airborne and then fly at thousands of feet above the ground. Balancing the risk/reward […]

Flying with friends and fellow pilots can be the best times, but it also has the potential to turn into a nightmare. This can happen when the person beside or behind you becomes a backseat flier. While it is important to speak up in cases that could turn into safety or legal issues, constant reminders […]

Flying Magazine Editor-in-Chief Robert Goyer has been named Editor of the Year by parent company Bonnier Corp., a publisher of nearly 40 consumer magazines in the United States. Judges singled out Goyer for “significantly advancing the way Flying leverages content to increase audience size and engagement on the brand’s website, social media, eNews and tablet […]

The Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE) will host its second regional Pilot Proficiency Project (PPP) session on the weekend of March 8 to 9 in Melbourne, Florida. The event will be sponsored by the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) and hosted at the school’s aviation division. A total of 14 seminars and 11 […]