Pilot Proficiency

You may recall a story from last year where a 16-year-old student pilot soloed three different types of aircraft on his birthday. Yesterday, for his 17th birthday, Drew Gryder decided to up the ante. Gryder managed to complete the checkrides for his single- and multi-engine private ratings and second-in-command type ratings for the Douglas DC-3 […]

As the FAI World Aerobatics Championship began this weekend at the North Texas Regional Airport/Perrin Field near Sherman, Texas, the aerobatic community tragically lost one of its own. Former FAI Advanced World Champion Glen Dell died in an accident at an airshow in Secunda, South Africa. Video footage shows Dell’s Red Bull Extra 300 in […]

As fall and winter starts to set in and the days grow shorter, it is important to make sure that your night flying skills are up to snuff. Flying can take a lot more time than you may initially plan for. With less daylight to play with you are more likely to find yourself left […]

I had just finished packing my suitcase and refueling my rental car, ready to depart L’Agulhas, a sleepy fishing village built on the soft green hills and limestone rocks of Africa’s southernmost point. My last two days in South Africa were spent soaking up the sunlit serenity of this surfside enclave where the Atlantic and […]

Climbing over large boulders blocking the mouth of a narrow, sandy canyon near Joshua Tree, California, I stopped to catch my breath. Somewhere on the steep, rock-strewn hills just ahead, the remains of a TA-4F Skyhawk lay undisturbed. At 3:07 p.m. on Oct. 23, 1969, the ill-fated jet on a training flight originating in Yuma, […]

Engines, aircraft, and the rules and certification standards and procedures that govern them have evolved together since the 1930s on the seemingly firm foundation of leaded avgas, which forms part of the operating limitations on which the type certificates of aircraft and engines are based. Fuels and fuel systems have come to be perfectly matched […]

A pilot out of Jacksonville, Florida, is lucky to be alive after surviving two unusual inflight accidents in one year. According to First Coast News, Graham Hill and his passenger walked away from a plane crash after the Cessna 172 from which Hill was towing a banner over a Florida Gators football game reportedly lost […]

No wonder the White House believes it’s winning the 10-day-old standoff with Republicans over the government shutdown. With the power he has American businesses, including much of the aviation industry, the president holds what might be an unbeatable hand. If Republicans didn’t know it before, they do now. With one phone call to Transportation Secretary […]

When the pilot of a Cessna 172 lost consciousness over northern England on Tuesday, his passenger, 77-year-old John Wildey, knew enough to make a Mayday call. That initiated a flurry of rescue activity that resulted in a successful emergency landing, though the unidentified pilot later died after being taken to a hospital. Wildey and the […]

AOPA’s initiative to promote flying clubs around the country, which was announced at last year’s AOPA Summit in Palm Springs, California, has inspired Sporty’s to launch a program to aid clubs as well. Sporty’s is offering 5 percent rebates on all purchases from customers who are members of a registered flying club. “We are in […]