Pilot Proficiency

Even if you only fly VFR in good weather, it pays to check for the location of instrument approaches along your route of flight. Just as you always ensure that your course doesn’t take you dangerously close to terrain or obstacles, you also want to avoid flying through the inbound course of an approach that […]

I gazed at the pile of Jepp binders that were scattered across my desk: United States, Europe, Latin America, Pacific, Far East, 777 ops manual, company manual. I sighed with a wary smile. Was it possible that I would never again have to clack open metal rings and replace pages upon pages of approach plates […]

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 “Gunner” Thompson, who recently flew into Page Field Airport in Fort Myers, Florida, in a Piper Archer II. Here’s what he had to say about one of […]

If you have thoughts of launching a flying club, the time to act is now. The experts at Chicago-area-based Ground Effect Advisors want to help you out, and they have more than words to offer. They’ve hit up AOPA for a $1,000 scholarship, seed money to help get your club up and running — into […]

With 149 air traffic control towers scheduled to close in the near future, many as early as next week, it may be time for you to brush up on non-towered airport operations. To help in this process, PilotWorkshops has released a free non-towered operations video series that you can view online at your leisure. “While […]

Night flying presents enough of an additional challenge to us pilots that the FAA maintains certain requirements for night-specific training for the Private and Commercial Pilot Certificates and for night flying currency in order to carry passengers. In order to be safe at night, panel and cockpit lighting is important as it ensures that you […]

Almost inexplicably, neither the instructor nor the experienced owner-pilot of a Zodiac 601-XL (N999NA) was wearing his seat belt on an instructional flight in the newly-acquired aircraft. Following an unexplained “malfunction” that caused a severe pitch-down, the forward-hinged canopy flew open and the student pilot was thrown from the two-seat, side-by-side cockpit. He fell 2,500 […]

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 Jim Urban, who recently flew into Traverse City, Michigan’s Cherry Capital Airport in a Cessna 210. Here’s what he had to say about one of the airport’s FBOs, […]

In the FAA’s rush to shut down scores of the nation’s contract control towers, nobody within the agency saw it necessary to perform a thorough analysis of the potential safety ramifications. Nor did the agency conduct a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis to consider, among other things, the millions of dollars it took to build the towers […]

The creator of the world’s most efficient paper airplane, John Collins, has launched The New World Champion Paper Airplane Book, a guide that explains how to make his record-breaking design, which he named “Susanne” after his wife, and 23 other “masterpieces of precision and aerodynamics.” While “Susanne” was designed for distance by maximizing lift and […]