Pilot Proficiency

Talk about max performing your airplane. In a dramatic video of a close call at an airport in Australia, the pilot of a Cessna 172 flares for landing just as another 172 begins to taxi across the active runway right in front of him. Quick reaction by the first Skyhawk prevents what surely would have […]

On August 8 at around 5:30 p.m. local time Key West Seaplanes pilots (and co-owners) Julie Ann Floyd and Nikali Pontecorvo were ferrying one of their pontoon-equipped Cessnas from Key West to Miami when they heard a distress call. An unidentified pilot was having engine trouble in the vicinity of Key Largo and wasn’t sure […]

Dual Electronics’ XGPS170 combination GPS/ADS-B receiver is now compatible with WSI’s Pilotbrief Optima iPad app. WSI’s app, available through the Apple iTunes store or at wsi.com/pilotbrief, provides what the company describes as “professional-grade weather services at a private pilot price.” It also incorporates charts and flight-planning software. Adding ADS-B via the Bluetooth connection on the […]

Sporty’s has released a new and completely revamped version of its E6B app for the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone, including the iPhone 5. The new version includes the same features as the electronic E6B that is available from Sporty’s Pilot Shop. The app includes 22 aviation functions, conversions for 10 different parameters and some […]

On a Sunday morning in March a 150-hour private pilot, 61 years old, and his wife went for a short flight in a rented Cherokee Warrior. It was a nice blue-sky day. The nearest weather reporting point, 20 miles to the south, was calling the visibility 10 miles — which meant, for all practical purposes, […]

| It takes a village to make an animated film. Around 500 people contributed to the creation of Planes, Disney’s latest animated movie, slated for release on Aug. 9. I had the chance to meet with a few of the key creators to learn more about what goes into making an animated movie that, through […]

I encountered a minor problem while working on my private pilot ticket: Members of the Des Moines, Iowa, company’s flying club kept crashing their airplanes! In one case, a member got into weather he couldn’t handle in a Tri-Pacer with minimal instruments. So he put her down in a cornfield. He wasn’t hurt, but the […]

On Saturday August 24 the National Transportation Safety Board will hold a seminar on “lessons learned” from accidents involving experimental amateur-built (E-AB) aircraft. Though some 33,000 E-ABs constitute a bit less than 10 percent of the U.S. GA fleet, the category accounts for 15 percent of accidents and more than 20 percent of fatal accidents, […]

Highlighting the growing frustration aviation officials face in their quest to improve general aviation safety, accident statistics released this week remained virtually unchanged from 2011 to 2012, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. There were 1,471 GA accidents in 2012 versus 1,470 in 2011, according to the latest statistics compiled by the NTSB. Fatalities, […]

San Diego-based King Schools has launched a new app to help pilots make studying easier on the go. The new King Schools Companion app allows students access to their King Schools courses on an iPad or iPhone. Students simply need to download the Companion app from the App Store. Then they can log in using […]