Pilot Proficiency

It looks like a routine ILS approach as the crew of a Boeing Business Jet descends through 500 feet toward the runway on a gray, rainy day. On reaching minimums at around 200 feet, the airplane is on glidepath and a landing appears certain as the rabbit lights and runway are clearly visible straight ahead. […]

Every hour and every dollar I ever spent learning to fly this or that aircraft was worth this one flight. Israel is a beautiful country, every bit of it, even the dry parts. The people here are as friendly and engaging as Texans and the weather is as good as Southern California. I’m flying north […]

Generally, Flying doesn’t post video footage of crashes, but when a dad tries to show his sons just how to make this foam airplane fly, he experiences the very real consequences of unintended aerobatics. The results are priceless. And fortunately, no one was harmed in the process. Enjoy.

Every VFR pilot who has flown long enough to have gotten himself into and out of a few tight situations knows how insidious the onset of trouble is. He knows, too, that your state of mind when you are in the airplane, especially as you near your destination and the weather starts to go bad […]

Some people believe in the misconception that aviation accidents are largely caused by inexperience. But as pilots become more comfortable inside the skin of the fuselage that surrounds them, they can become more of a hazard. You may be surprised to learn that an NTSB study of general aviation accidents between 2007 through 2009 concluded […]

The computers driving modern avionics systems are capable of serving as flight data recorders, and in this case, they reveal the final moments that lead to the death of two pilots in a Cirrus SR22 crash. A video account of the accident is available on YouTube (see below). The cousins, aged 23 and 34, died […]

Bravo Kilo Echo enters the pattern to circumnavigate Victoria Falls. (Photos by Mike Venturino and Michelle Carter)| At 6,500 feet, we could see the spray of Victoria Falls billowing above the Zimbabwe flatland 70 miles out. No GPS necessary, just head for the cloud of mist and keep the roiling Zambezi River below you. Strung […]

A number of years ago, I attended an Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association flight-instructor refresher class as a newly licensed CFI-I. The instructor asked a roomful of about 60 CFIs if anyone had lost an engine and made a forced landing. I have never forgotten that day, when almost half the people in the room […]

| The forest below was thick and rolling, with leafy hilltops set ablaze by the setting sun and brooding valleys already lost to deepening shadows. A few lights twinkled to life through the canopy, but there was little other evidence of the hamlets and roads that my atlas showed sprinkled through these foothills of eastern […]

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 Mike Berman, who recently flew into Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, in a Lear 55. Here’s what he had to say about one of the airport’s […]