Pilot Proficiency

It’s the end of an era. Golf legend Arnold Palmer has made his final flight as pilot in command, calling it quits after almost 55 years at the controls of everything from open-cockpit biplanes to a Boeing 747. Along the way, he amassed nearly 20,000 hours in the cockpit. Palmer, 81, flew his Cessna Citation […]

(January 2011) — I had just begun to fill up the tank on my truck for the drive to JFK when my cell phone rang. The caller ID displayed “Crew Sched.” “Great,” I thought. I was probably going to be told that my trip to London was delayed. Nope. The news was something that I […]

You’re taxiing out for takeoff at an enroute airport, and the controller tells you you’re cleared “as filed.” Hot dog. For once, no worries about reprogramming the GPS before launching into the murk. So you continue on happily with your run-up and other pre-departure chores. But is that enough? Maybe; maybe not. According to FAA […]

The following was received from reader Roger Halstead in response to last week’s Flying_ Tip: Be Careful How You Respond_ “Yes, I think we need to be a LOT more vigilant, but not for security’s sake, but rather for the impression we create with the “unknowing and uneducated” when it comes to aviation. “Like “middle […]

You’ve probably experienced it yourself. A non-pilot friend or family member asks a question about flying that makes your head hurt as you try to think of how to respond. Of course, you don’t want to hurt your friend’s feelings (What’s the saying? There are no stupid questions, only stupid people who ask questions?), and […]

(December 2010) — High-frequency radio, used for beyond-the-horizon communication prior to the introduction of satellite relays, was subject to the whims of various ill-natured atmospheric elves and goblins; but when it was good it was very, very good, with the clarity and nuance of a fine telephone connection. So it is that I can still […]

If it were true that “Flying is inherently safe; it’s just very unforgiving of mistakes,” it would follow that the best way to improve our flying is to eliminate mistakes. To do that I’d like to suggest that pilots adopt the phrase “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better” as their mantra, […]

December 2010 — It starts out as a typical flight. You complete your preflight planning and load the airplane. The engine starts quickly and everything is normal during the run-up, so you taxi onto the runway, add full power and then smoothly lift off for another enjoyable flight. Then, just as you are thinking ahead […]

I have some very intelligent, well informed friends who honestly believe that America is highly vulnerable to the threat of attack with a general aviation aircraft. To them, because no one is scanning pilots and passengers as they board a private aircraft at a small airport, any one of those 200,000 aircraft might as well […]

Having grown up in Sweden, English is my second language (ironically, I can’t write in Swedish to save my life). Learning English was a very gradual process that started around age 10. One song that we learned in Grade 4 or 5 – “An elephant on an orange” – still runs through my mind on […]