Pilot Proficiency

The FAA says that a draft advisory circular that seemed to imply that rank-and-file Part 91 aviators would be held to the same standards as charter providers and the airlines when using EFBs (like the Class 1 Apple iPad) was never intended to change the regulatory lay of the land. The FAA’s Steve Morrison, who […]

Anybody who visited Oshkosh this year and spent more than about five minutes at the ICON Aircraft exhibit surely wasn’t surprised to learn that the would-be manufacturer of the A5 amphibian light sport aircraft – an undeniably cool LSA that looks like a winged Jetski and will sell for around $139,000 – took a ton […]

Learjet. It sounds fast and it is. This airplane has had a place in our aviation consciousness for a long time as the ultimate in speed, wealth, luxury and convenience. When first introduced by Bill Lear in 1964 it became synonymous with these things and more. Lear had bought the tooling for a Swiss ground-attack […]

(August 2011) You don’t have to look very long or very deeply into aviation’s troubles to see that there’s room for improvement pretty much across the board, from student retention to the cost of fuel, from primary flight training ineffectiveness to the accident rate. In fact, identifying the problems isn’t the hard part; figuring out […]

(Advertorial) There’s a right way to learn to fly and a wrong way, and Jon Gerhart has tried them both. After a less-than-fulfilling experience with his first instructor, Jon quit flying before he even soloed. Ilya Khakham, President of DCT Aviation in Waterford, Michigan (KPTK), has heard this story before. He thinks one of the […]

Flying at night requires an understanding of how darkness affects a pilot’s vision and what you can do to make sure you make the most of your night-limited vision. The most important aspect of night flying with respect to vision acuity is to realize that it takes 30 to 45 minutes for your eyes to […]

The 2011 edition of AirVenture Oshkosh was one for the ages. The weather was beautiful, the airplanes, and there were a lot of them, were spectacular, and the politics were, well, intriguing. The show got off on a very strange note when AirVenture Chairman Tom Poberezny called it quits by retiring at high noon by […]

Until recently, Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) were typically thought of as large computer devices mounted in the cockpits of high-end jets and airliners. They usually relied on a permanent mounting fixture, and needed to be hard-wired into the aircraft’s electrical system. Once installed, these EFBs provided electronic charts, moving map displays and weather in the […]

As a flight instructor, I find it particularly difficult to read about airplane accidents – fatal or not – that could have been prevented by better choices and, in some cases, better training. Flight instructors need to focus less on teaching their students to pass the FAA test and more on becoming good pilots that […]

(August 2011) As I rolled through the security gate at the GA side of the Key West Airport, I glanced toward the ramp area reserved for corporate jets and larger equipment. I caught a glimpse of the tail and upper fuselage of a hulking airplane as it taxied to a parking spot. Even with my […]