Pilot Proficiency

A heart surgeon flying out of the Danville Regional Airport (KDAN) in Danville, Virginia, crashed last week while reportedly approaching to land at one of the runways during a student solo flight. Local news outlets reported that the airplane, a Piper Warrior, hit a tower before crashing. The NTSB is investigating the cause of the […]

A British Airways poll conducted last month shows that at least British kids still aspire to fly. The independent research involved 650 U.K. youngsters from ages six to 12. Most boys chose careers as football (soccer) players, followed by pilots and then “superheroes.” (Nice to know pilots came out ahead of caped crusaders.) Girls favored […]

The date was Dec. 23, 1943 — I was 21 years old. I was in the rear cockpit of a Fairchild PT-19 primary trainer with a total dual time to date of 10 hours. My instructor was in the front cockpit. The wide-open grass landing strip of Cimarron Field Primary Flight School in Oklahoma was […]

Talk about a deal that’s too good to miss. For the month of October, Redbird Skyport in San Marcos, Texas, will be selling avgas for the bargain price of $1 per gallon. There are no strings attached as long as you fly in and fill up at the FBO, which currently charges around $6 a […]

It’s too early to say how the forced landing of Cessna’s diesel 182 JT-A test airplane after an apparent engine failure will impact the certification program. Cessna and French engine maker SMA are now working to determine what went wrong last Wednesday. The test pilot of the experimental 182 JT-A, N9008H, reported to ATC that […]

Passengers of a Douglas DC-3 belonging to Yellowknife, Canada-based Buffalo Airways got a wild ride after one of the two big radial engines caught fire shortly after takeoff from the Yellowknife Airport, Canadian news network CBC reported. The pilot of the heavy taildragger circled back to the airport, but didn’t quite make it to the […]

The Experimental Aircraft Association has added three new members to its board of directors, members who add a broad base of experience to the organization. “Each of these three EAA members has a diverse aviation background and, more importantly, a longtime connection with our organization in multiple areas,” said EAA’s chairman of the board, Jack […]

They tell us that weather forecasting is seeing dramatic improvements thanks to new supercomputers capable of making hundreds of trillions of calculations per second. The latest computers in the arsenal of the National Weather Service are now more than twice as fast as they were just a few years ago, enabling far more accurate forecasts […]

I once watched a pilot perform a quickie preflight inspection of a Skyhawk at a flight school and then hop in the airplane and try to taxi out — with the tail still tied down. The red-faced pilot shut down and untied the rope as those of us on the ramp offered words of encouragement. […]

The FAA’s insistence on charging airshows for ATC services has caused the organizers at the Copperstate Fly-In, set to take place October 24-26 in Casa Grande, Arizona, to make a tough decision. The airplanes flying in for the show will have to fend for themselves. With approximately 500 aircraft attending the three-day show, this could […]