Pilot Proficiency

The pilot of a Cirrus SR22 who experienced an apparent engine failure in flight over Upshur County, West Virginia, on Saturday was uninjured after deploying the airplane’s emergency parachute. According to local news reports, the Cirrus struck a truck being driven on a road as the airplane came to rest near a car dealership. The […]

FAR 91.209 requires pilots to use anti-collision lights any time an airplane is in operation unless the pilot determines that operating conditions makes it unsafe to have them on. Whether the airplane you fly is equipped with a beacon, strobes or both, you are probably in the habit of turning on some type of anti-collision […]

Dick Koenig, the former publisher of Flying magazine, has been named Executive Director of the Corporate Angel Network (CAN), the organization that arranges free flights for cancer patients to treatment centers using empty seats on business jets. Koenig is replacing Peter Fleiss, CAN’s longtime leader, who is retiring. “The Board is delighted to have Dick […]

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has announced the dates and locations for the regional AOPA Fly-Ins that will replace the organization’s annual AOPA Aviation Summit convention. This year, the one-day events will be held on Saturdays at each of the following locations: April 26 – San Marcos Municipal Airport, Texas (HYI) May 31 – […]

The Challenger 600 that crashed in Aspen, Colorado, on Sunday afternoon was on its second approach to the airport after the pilots aborted their first landing because of an extremely strong tailwind on short final. The copilot was killed when the jet went off the right side of the runway during the second landing attempt, […]

A Piper PA-28 pilot found himself in quite a bind over the weekend when his airplane lost power while flying over the Bronx in New York City. The pilot and two passengers had departed Connecticut’s Danbury Municipal Airport on Saturday to take in some aerial views of the Statue of Liberty and were returning to […]

It’s not something I usually admit in polite company, but I think I’m fairly prone to addiction. I’ve never been a raging alcoholic or desperate junkie, mind you, but when I take an interest in something, I tend to go all in. Shortly after I started motorcycling, I rode my old BMW on a 15,000-mile […]

In those kinder and gentler days (which may be more legend than fact), an FAA inspector who learned that your Mooney was sitting on its belly might have taken down the details over the phone, filed a brief report and even offered sympathy for your embarrassment and the cost of the repairs. General aviation activity […]

The 2014 edition of the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, which took place just before the 100th Rose Bowl football game, had a special aviation-themed float this year. A T-6 Texan replica soared above eight original members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots riding along on the WASP Rose Parade float. The 20-ton float […]

It was a spectacularly clear spring day in Lakeland, Florida. My wife, Cathy, and I were sauntering from exhibit to exhibit with four friends at Sun ’n Fun. The airshow had just begun. A fleet of Pitts Specials screamed by. We were just talking to Darryl Taylor of Van Bortel Aircraft in Texas about the […]