Pilot Proficiency

When photos and details of the iPad first appeared in the general press, pilots immediately started talking about how great the device would be for viewing approach charts. The sentiment wasn’t lost on developers. Within weeks the first iPad applications were showing up with government AeroNav (formerly NACO) terminal charts. It didn’t take long for […]

Minimums,” says Bob Owsley. The view isn’t encouraging. We can see the ground, or more accurately the water, but that’s about it. There is no sparkle to the gray surface of Lake Winnebago; it is a mirror of the dark clouds just 100 feet over our heads. Still, this is the most spectacular way to […]

The event happened in the middle of March, when the weather consists of winter storms and unsettled conditions. Weather, the nemesis for all pilots, almost became the leading contributor to what should have been the last day of my life. I lived in Salt Lake City at the time, and I was just about to […]

One of the most difficult parts of learning to fly has always been learning to talk on the radio. I know it was for me when I was a teenager negotiating with controllers at my first few towered airports. With no experience in the system, simulated or otherwise, I had to scramble to figure out […]

The guy on the phone was a little vague about the availability of a crew car. “We got some T-6s coming in” was the only explanation forthcoming. Undeterred, we set off; there wasn’t much to lose. We were in a Cessna 210 and we were in Texas. By we I mean friends Rob and Kathy […]

It’s always a bit iffy planning an IFR trip that will last more than 48 hours or so. You can make educated guesses on what the weather will be in four or five days (I check the forecasts on Yahoo), but anything beyond the NOAA’s ADDS prog charts (click here) is getting into increasingly uncertain […]

“Taming the tailwheel” was the catchy title for an all-day seminar I attended recently. The program, a FAAST (FAA Safety Team) sanctioned event, was sponsored by EAA Chapter 146 at the Kline Kill Airport (NY1) in Ghent, New York. There were perhaps 40 of us in attendance, and almost all flew conventionally configured airplanes with […]

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) […]