Pilot Proficiency

After my article on overcoming go-around hesitation was published in the November 2012 issue of Flying, I received a message from Dr. Martin Smith about a study he and his associates at Presage Group Inc. conducted in conjunction with the Flight Safety Foundation. The goal of the study was to try to determine how commercial […]

Sun ‘n Fun closed in style over the weekend with a reported 5 percent uptick in traffic compared to last year’s show, according to organizers. Reports from companies attending the show varied. While all reported a drop-off in overall foot traffic, a number of them told Flying that the quality of the folks who stopped […]

This week marks the 71st anniversary of the Doolittle Raid on Japan. Of the 80 men who took off in their B-25 bombers from an aircraft carrier far off the coast of Japan, only four now remain. Three of the four are meeting this week in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, not far from Eglin Field, […]

As summer approaches and temperatures begin to rise, it’s important to take steps to keep cool. Excessive heat can be incapacitating, and the effects might not hit you until you have already taken off. A Ryan Air pilot found this out the hard way as he passed out partway into a flight from Pisa, Italy, […]

It is often pointed out that although people commonly imagine aircraft accidents as arising from a single big cause — engine failure, thunderstorm — they very often follow a series of small ones. Any small thing slightly out of order may, under sufficiently unlucky circumstances, become the cause of an accident. It is the inherently […]

One of the biggest problems with home PC-based flight simulators is replicating the real-world panel the pilot flies. Real-world airplane panels have a wide range of available equipment, and almost never match up with the simulator program’s configuration. A lot of training time goes to waste learning the panel that’s on the computer screen, or […]

The Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has added six new undergraduate and graduate degree programs, offering educational opportunities related to recent developments in the field. Most of these programs will begin this fall at various ERAU locations. As the commercial space travel industry is being cultivated, ERAU claims to be the first school in the world to […]

At Sun ‘n Fun AOPA and Redbird, along with numerous partners including Flying, launched a new kind of simulator. The AOPA Jay by Redbird is an all-in-one solution for pilots and other flying enthusiasts who want to get up and flying using a desktop sim without having to engineer a system themselves. The Jay, which […]

Once again the White House’s annual budget proposal calls for a $100 per-flight user fee on certain general aviation aircraft. While talk of user fees used to send chills through the industry, this time around the reaction has been one of confident resolve rather than fear. Here’s what’s changed. In the last few years the […]

Make sure you bring your sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat if you’re heading out to the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In in Lakeland, Florida, which opened its doors this morning under partly cloudy skies. The forecast calls for mostly clear weather and warm temperatures for the nearly weeklong event at the Lakeland Linder Airport. But despite […]