Pilot Proficiency

After he “aced” the ground (oral) portion of a private check ride I gave last week, this young man pointed the airplane in approximately the right direction, found a couple of checkpoints and made a reasonable guess about our time to the next one listed on his flight log sheet. This with benefit of a […]

The annual National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) convention and EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh have a lot in common. You wouldn’t know that to look at the different contents of my suitcase for both shows, but it’s true. I’ve thought for a long time that the core people involved in business aviation have just as much […]

If business jets could qualify as angels, the Cessna Citations participating in the Cessna Citation Special Olympics Airlift would have earned their wings. On July 17, 2010, an armada of Citation business jets carrying some 800 Special Olympics athletes and coaches winged their way from airports all across the country to Lincoln Municipal Airport (KLNK) […]

At my day job, it’s easy to take for granted that most aspects of flight planning are generated by typing the appropriate codes into the computer. The data have already been entered by the dispatcher and the load planner. For the most part, my job is to simply review the information. When I made the […]

If you’ve been waiting for the Aircraft Electronics Association’s take on what to expect from the FAA’s plan to implement ADS-B, you’re not going to like what you hear. In an Oct. 4, memo to the FAA, the AEA didn’t mince words. The association said the FAA’s Aug. 30 memo would “stall early equipage, delay […]

Veteran combat airmen based in England during World War II understood the need to be prepared for the worst. Crash landing or bailing out over enemy territory meant a long hike home, at best. So they gave careful thought to carrying whatever it might take to find their way back to friendly territory. Without anyone […]

Each month, Flying answers questions about the new Sport Pilot/Light-Sport Aircraft rule with assistance from the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), the authority on the opportunities available within the category commonly known as “Sport Pilot”: Q: My wife and I both want to get Sport Pilot certificates and light-sport aircraft. Can we use our LSA aircraft […]

Of course, icing is possible year round — even at Bonanza altitudes. On an August flight from Quebec a couple of years ago, I did pick up some noticeable rime icing when passing through cloud tops at 9,000 feet. But as we get to the bottom quarter of the calendar, icing becomes more of a […]

After test deployments in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, Louisville and Philadelphia, the FAA announced last week it has approved full deployment of Automatic Dependent Surveillance — Broadcast (ADS-B) technology. The agency reported ADS-B will be fully operational by 2013. Tests of the combination satellite and ground-based hardware proved it would operate in the most […]

I was flying to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, for parking at the Dassault Falcon Jet flight ops department. When I was about two miles to the northeast of the field for Runway 24, the controller told me to do a 360 for jet traffic landing on Runway 19. Old Bonanzas are great short field […]