Pilot Proficiency

The Air Line Pilots Association has come out and said what a lot of folks in aviation already suspected: The looming pilot shortage we’ve been hearing so much about lately is a myth, created by airlines unwilling to offer better pay. There is no pilot shortage, period. ALPA agrees that there may in fact be […]

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 Gabriel I. Peñagarícano, who has recently flown into Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida in a Cessna 414A. Here’s what he had to say about one of the […]

The FAA’s recent announcement that it is going to make the installation of angle-of-attack indicators in light general aviation airplanes as easy as possible is an incredible development. Why would the FAA reduce the certification barriers of a flight-critical instrumentation system? The answer is simple: AOA indicators are long overdue in general aviation airplanes, and […]

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 […]