Pilot Proficiency

It’s probably not surprising that author Ernie Gann, a former captain for my airline, is one of my heroes. His poetic words epitomized the very beginning of commercial air travel — when it was romantic to fly. Captains were given the ultimate authority over nearly every aspect of their flights. But interestingly enough, he challenged […]

Driving from Tampa, Florida, to KPBI for class at JetSuite’s Palm Beach base, Phil Smith and I are reunited for one last time. Indoc and sim partners for almost a month, we are both about to fly as first officers for the first time; each of us has been assigned to a “B” captain for […]

Two people were killed and one was critically injured on Tuesday morning when a news helicopter crashed and burned next to Seattle’s Space Needle. Two cars were destroyed in the crash as flames and plumes of black smoke poured from the burning wreckage about 50 yards from the base of the Space Needle, according to […]

More than 10 days after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on a mysterious flight that started out headed for Beijing but ended up who knows where, investigators appear no closer to locating the missing Boeing 777. But a series of tantalizing clues is providing at least a glimpse of what may have happened […]

The preflight inspection is a critical phase that gives you an opportunity to make sure that everything is OK with the airplane before you lift off the ground. If everyone conducted a similar inspection of their cars, there would likely be far fewer people pulled over on the side of the road out of gas […]

There have been several attempts at depicting flight paths around busy airports and around the world, some more successful than others. One of the coolest visualizations has recently come out of Europe though a British company called NATS, which offers a variety of aviation-related solutions. Titled Europe 24, NATS’ video depicts actual flights arriving at […]

I adjusted the captain’s seat a final time and exhaled a hushed whistle. My eyes darted across the DC-9’s cluttered instrument panel. Endless dials and knobs were embedded in the gray metal. A seasoned DC-9 pilot would view the layout as a smile from an old friend. I felt like I was shaking hands with […]

If you’re headed to Oshkosh or Reno in 2015 you’re in luck. Watchmaker Breitling announced that the Breitling Jet Team will kick off its first-ever U.S. tour during the 2015 airshow season, including stops at EAA AirVenture and the Reno Air Races. The team has performed together in their black-and-yellow L-39 Albatros twinjets for nearly […]

As the days pass, the likelihood of ever finding Malaysia Airlines Flight 370‘s black boxes grow dimmer. Searchers initially began looking for the jet in the Gulf of Thailand, the location of the Boeing 777’s last reported position. They then fanned out to the west, believing that the jetliner may have veered off course with […]

We’ve all cursed the guy prattling on for what seems like forever over the Unicom frequency as he supplies us with every last detail of what he’s flying, what he’s doing and what he plans to do next. Meanwhile, we can’t get a word in edgewise to let other pilots know we’ve just entered the […]