Pilot Proficiency

The competition in the Unlimited Class at the National Championship Air Races taking place in Reno, Nevada, this week is off to an exciting start. On Tuesday, during the second day of qualifications for the Unlimited Class, part of the canopy on Strega, the airplane that won the class during the past few years at […]

“Let’s face it , some of the items on the checklist are written in blood,” our sim instructor says. It is day three of recurrent training. My training partner and I sit up straight. These words compel us to think carefully about why we are there and what we are doing. It means that accidents, […]

It’s never a good idea to use a taxiway as a runway (though it’s happened plenty of times). But as you probably know controllers will frequently instruct pilots to do just the opposite — that is, use a runway as a taxiway. We normally accept these special taxi clearances without giving much thought to the […]

The National Transportation Safety Board is holding a safety forum in Washington that is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and tomorrow. Expert panelists have been invited to discuss advances in safety culture research and ways to improve aviation safety culture. The forum panels, which are being streamed live online here, […]

A Cessna T-50 Bobcat, also known as the Bamboo Bomber, that went missing more than a week ago, on Labor Day, has been found in a cornfield in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. The wreckage was so badly burned that the investigators could not ascertain how many people were aboard the vintage twin-engine taildragger, but it is […]

A teenager was killed last week when a remote-controlled aircraft he was flying struck him in the head, officials say. Roman Pirozek, 19, was flying his RC helicopter, worth about $2,000, in Calvert Vaux Park in Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday afternoon when the accident occurred. Some witnesses say he was performing “aggressive” maneuvers with […]

The 50th anniversary National Championship Air Races officially kick off tomorrow at the Reno/Stead Airport outside Reno, Nevada. And there is much to get excited about at this year’s event. The most recent champion, Steve Hinton Jr., is no longer flying Strega, the airplane that he has won the Unlimited race category in during the […]

A lawyer called recently and asked for some help with an aviation-related case. I think he probably inherited it, being the most junior associate in his law firm. When it became apparent that this was a pretty complex issue, and knowing what it costs to consult with a lawyer for longer than two nanoseconds, I […]

Many of the aviation accidents I have written about fall into the “What were they thinking?” category. This would include a noninstrument-rated pilot who takes off into weather that is so bad even the birds are walking; the pilot who continues into ominous weather; and the pilot who tries to take off on a short, […]

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 Robert Thrailkill, who recently flew into Portland-Hillsboro Airport in Portland, Oregon, in a Beechcraft P35. Here’s what he had to say about one of the airport’s FBOs, Aero […]