Pilot Proficiency

The winds have been downright nasty across the UK this winter, giving one local plane watcher the chance to put together an incredible YouTube video of harrowing crosswind takeoffs and landings. We don’t know what the metars reported for these challenging operations, but suffice it to say the winds in all case were strong with […]

What if you could live inside an airplane? Well, one aviation enthusiast has actually made that possible. About four years ago, engineer Toshikazu Tsukii (or Ski as he is commonly known) took on the enormous project of building a guesthouse using parts of retired Boeing 707, 727, 737, 747 jets and military airplanes. Living in […]

Flying editor-in-chief Robert Goyer appeared during South by Southwest, the Austin, Texas, music, technology, film and interactive festival. Goyer took part in the culminating session of Waggener Edstrom’s Connected Car Pavillion panel discussions, which in all featured more than two dozen automobile industry experts weighing in on the future of the automobile in terms of […]

The tragic presumed crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on Saturday that apparently claimed the lives of 239 people remains a mystery, but it is a mystery that can be solved if searchers find the wreckage, which is still a big “if” at this point. The Boeing 777-200ER that presumably crashed into the ocean was […]

An incredible series of photos dramatically illustrate the progression of a collision that happened over the weekend at the South Lakeland Airport — a grass field in Mulberry, Florida, southwest of Lakeland. The Tampa Bay Times reported that the pilot, Sharon Trembley, was practicing takeoffs and landings in a Cessna taildragger when the skydiver, reported […]

On Feb. 12, 2009, 50 people lost their lives as Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed while on an instrument approach into Buffalo Niagara International Airport. As is the case with many accidents, several causes contributed to the crash, including icing conditions and fatigue. However, what may have saved the lives of the people on board […]

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 — […]