Pilot Proficiency

Contempt and awe seldom wed, but height may make a match between them. One of the intermittent rewards of flying is the thought-provoking perspective it provides: We look down upon great cities reduced to anonymous gray smudges, or the lights of a solitary car speeding alone at midnight across a canvas of black velvet. The […]

In the early ’60s, when I went wrong and started hanging out at the aerodrome, common wisdom was that the DC-3, while a grand old airplane, had outlived its usefulness to the military, the airlines and even corporate operators. Its death knell was tolling to signal the time had come to relegate these antiques to […]

We’ve all been asked, “Isn’t flying little airplanes risky?” And we all have our own answers. If you’ve been using the old chestnut, “It’s safer than driving to the airport,” then you’ve been cheating, at least a little bit. No, statistically, flying light aircraft is much riskier than driving a car. But it is true […]

En route from Miami to Medellin, Colombia, the cockpit satellite phone rang on board Kalitta Air’s 747-200. Dispatch was calling with a request. A competitor’s 747 freighter was experiencing mechanical problems in Bogotá. The competitor would be unable to transport a large load of flowers back to the United States. Would the crew divert into […]

As pilots, we spend much of our training time anticipating emergencies and drilling ourselves on how to react. That’s good, because training means exercising our mental muscle memory. Just as a pro basketball player practices the same three-point shot thousands of times to train his leg, arm and wrist muscles, we ingrain the correct responses […]

At 10,000 feet, the weather opened up and we could see how Anchorage is surrounded by awesome and treacherous terrain. My first look at Alaska was from the window seat of a Boeing, but as a pilot, I could immediately appreciate how this could be a very dangerous place to fly. Later, as I drove […]

July 2010 — Time have changed in aviation, with the advent of computerized avionics, satellite navigation and five-buck-a-gallon avgas, but two things that haven’t changed are that flying costs money and pilots will look for ways to cut those costs. There’s more need to economize than ever before because getting behind the yoke of an […]

A group called the Clean 100-Octane Coalition met with FAA last week and made it clear that any 100 Low Lead (100LL) replacement fuel must be able to accommodate high-power piston engines. There has been controversy surrounding proposals to develop fuels that would operate well with most piston aircraft engines, but not the higher-powered models, […]

Even with a stone-age /U-equipped airplane, I have always preferred to file IFR for most flights. That’s for a number of reasons familiar to all instrument pilots. In order of priority, the top four are: traffic advisories; not having to worry about TFRs or other restricted airspace; no bobbing and weaving over, under and around […]

Air traffic controllers are terrific people dedicated to helping pilots complete their flights smoothly and safely. That is a true statement until the smooth part, or maybe even the safe part, comes into conflict with the only absolute requirement in ATC, which is to separate airplanes under its control from one another by required minimum […]