Pilot Proficiency

I didn’t think it was such a crazy idea. My boyfriend’s 17-year-old son, Connor, had been expressing an interest in flying for the past couple of years. I’d promised him I’d take him up one day so he could get a better idea of what it was like, but Connor and his dad lived in […]

Q: I would like to get my Sport Pilot Certificate and have a lot of questions about the training requirements. But first, I have an opportunity to purchase a Luscombe 8E. Can a sport pilot fly this airplane? A: Congratulations on your goal to become a sport pilot! But don’t buy the Luscombe 8E. Other […]

There’s a discount store, called the Dollar Store, where everything in the establishment goes for a dollar or less. This is not strictly true, for some items may reach two or even three dollars, but you get the point. This retailer suggests a metaphor for flying short distances. A lot of satisfaction can be had […]

Christmas Eve 2002 should have been a happy time. It was my first Christmas with my new wife in our new home in Miami. I was a commercial pilot for a small, domestic freight airline. Pilots who do this type of flying are referred to as “freight dogs” because sometimes a day for us can […]

Like a lot of aircraft owners, I have my list of airplane expenses divided into ‘gotta-do’ and ‘wanna-do’ items. And also like a lot of owners, I schedule annual inspections during the winter. So the holiday season is when I start revisiting the improvements I’d like to make on my venerable V-tail Bonanza. I won’t […]

It’s not that I was so unlike the typical teenager—counting down the days until I took my driver’s test at 17—but there was no denying I looked forward to an earlier birthday even more eagerly: my 15th, when finally I was allowed to start taking flying lessons. I first began pestering my parents to let […]

The flight school where I completed most of my flight training and where I instructed for nearly two years is called Justice Aviation. Every year, Justice and a few other businesses at Santa Monica Airport host a Christmas party – an event I always attend to catch up with friends and former coworkers. This year, […]

The FAA’s aircraft re-registration initiative has caught the attention of headline writers in the general media. “FAA loses track of 190,000 planes” was one. Naturally, the emphasis in the stories was on the potential threat to security. In fact, the larger concern is one of administrative housekeeping. Under the new rules, aircraft owners will have […]

I’ve carried several varieties of portable GPS navigators over the years, and of course none are approved as sole means of navigation for IFR operations. There are a number of reasons for this, including the fact that portable navigators don’t incorporate the necessary RAIM (receiver autonomous integrity monitoring) technology for IFR certification. RAIM raises a […]

I’m essentially a little airplane pilot, and only rarely have I “flown far out across the prairies of the sky to lands my fathers never knew and shores my kindred never trod,” but I think any pilot understands Gill Robb Wilson’s feelings about flying home for Christmas: I’ve blessed my wings a thousand times For […]