Pilot Proficiency

Several years ago my uncle and I flew up to Boston to pick up our new company airplane and fly it back to Georgia after the installation of an ice-protection system. We had dropped the airplane off two weeks earlier — a milestone for me as a pilot and my uncle as a student pilot, […]

What better way to wrap up the year than with a list of flyingtips to help carry you into 2013? From how to master a forward slip to recognizing the signs of spatial disorientation, we’ve compiled our most popularflying tips of the year in a list that offers something for beginning pilots, expert aviators and […]

2012 was a year full of innovation and change for the aviation industry, a year that saw the introduction of some revolutionary new aircraft, along with the ongoing turmoil caused by the global economic downturn. While the list of major events could go on and on, check out our picks for the top 20 stories […]

In two weeks, aviation archaeologists will start working to unearth what they expect will be as many as 36 new-in-the-box Supermarine Spitfires. British warbird researcher David Cundall believes the fighters were buried in crates near the end of World War II in Burma, now Myanmar. He worked for years to locate the cache, and earlier […]

We all know that thorough preflight planning makes for safer, easier flights. If you’re flying VFR, an important component of preflight planning is getting to know your destination airport. But there are times when unforecast weather conditions or, worse, a malfunction of some kind may prevent you from continuing to the airport you originally planned […]

Four illustrious pilots will be enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) for 2013. The inductees include Charles Alfred Anderson; Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady; Captain Robert “Hoot” Gibson; and Dwane Wallace, who will be honored at a black tie dinner. Anderson and Wallace will be inducted posthumously. Charles Anderson is called “the father […]

The NTSB is investigating the crash of a King Air 100 near Libby, Montana, early Wednesday that claimed the lives of the pilot and a passenger. According to local news reports, employees of Stinger Welding Inc. became concerned when CEO Carl Douglas never arrived for a planned meeting on Wednesday morning. A witness said she […]

A New Hampshire man who crashed his Cessna 310 on New Year’s Day in 2011, killing his daughter, will never get his pilot’s certificate back but avoided serving jail time after pleading guilty to manslaughter. The judge in the case accepted a plea agreement reached between the defense and prosecution and sentenced Steven Fay, 58, […]

We all have to learn how to perform short- and soft-field landings as part of the training for the private pilot certificate. The short-field landing is one of the most difficult maneuvers because of the precision required to pass the task. You have to maintain the approach speed to accuracy and land the airplane within […]

Thursday, October 11, 2012, a floatplane capsizes in Glen Lake, New York. The two pilots that were in the aircraft escaped without injury. The local emergency services were activated. After ensuring the safety of the pilots, a volunteer dive team decided that they would flip the aircraft back over. After attempting unsuccessfully for many hours, […]