Pilot Proficiency

Every year, the editors at Flying get together to select a small group of new products that have had an impact on the world of aviation during the previous calendar year. The airplanes that made the cut this time around were unusual choices for us. One of them, the Citation M2, recently received certification. Cessna […]

Our county medical society was hosting a winter conference at Sun Valley, a ski resort town in Idaho. Being an avid skier and pilot, I jumped at the opportunity to scratch both itches and fly to the conference. The FBO at my field had a Seneca II available, with oxygen, boots and hot props (but […]

On the 110th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight, owner-pilot John Magoffin pushed the throttle lever forward on his rare 1933 Lockheed Vega, the aircraft of choice of pioneer aviators, including Amelia Earhart (who flew one on her solo transatlantic record flight) and Wiley Post, who flew a Vega around the world twice. Magoffin’s […]

Alan and Dale Klapmeier, the brothers who co-founded Cirrus Design in the mid-1980s, are among six people who will be inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, next year. The other individuals honored by the Hall of Fame include Emily Warner, who flew for Frontier Airlines in the 1970s; the late […]

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are combing through debris trying to find the cause of a fiery business jet crash on Tuesday night in Atlanta in which two people were killed. The Beech Premier I departed from Fulton County Airport at the western edge of the city around 7:22 p.m. […]

Flying on a gorgeous afternoon last week in the Florida Keys, I saw something that made me shake my head. From my vantage point cruising east at 1,200 feet after stopping for lunch in Key West, I spotted a tiny speck of an airplane at an altitude of maybe 50 feet buzzing cars on a […]

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, a 760,000-square-foot facility that houses airplanes belonging to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s vast collection of aviation artifacts, celebrated its 10th anniversary over the weekend. Named after Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, a Hungarian entrepreneur who donated millions to the National Air and Space Museum, the facility is home to […]

When the U.K. Environmental Agency warned of high winds in northern England earlier this month, they weren’t crying wolf. The agency cautioned of 90-mph winds in the region and parts of Scotland, forcing ScotRail to cancel train service on December 5. The pilot of an Emirates Boeing 777 trying to land at Birmingham International Airport […]

The Asiana Airlines training captain who crashed a Boeing 777 at San Francisco International Airport in July was anxious about the visual approach, which he described as “very stressful,” according to investigators. Capt. Lee Kang Kuk, an eight-year employee of Asiana on his first extended trip flying the 777, also told investigators he was confused […]

The Navy Blue Angels and U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds are back. Their sequestration-driven hiatus from public performances is over, and the first performance will be a T-birds fly-over during the Tournament of Roses parade on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California. The Blue Angels will perform 68 demonstrations in 34 locations in 2014; and the […]