Pilot Proficiency

If you’re used to big, busy airports with full-service FBOs, it might be confusing to taxi onto a ramp at a smaller, sleepier airport. Without someone in an orange vest hustling out to wand you into place, figuring out where to park can be a bit baffling. You don’t want to block the right-of-way for […]

Lesson 3 with First Landings Aviation got cut short. My effort to miss a likely afternoon thunderstorm by scheduling an 8 a.m. lesson didn’t work this time. The clouds were already starting to build, but not enough so we couldn’t get into the air for at least a half-hour lesson (thanks again to the close […]

Pilots at my airport in New Jersey sometimes face a dilemma over whether or not to file IFR or go VFR. With the airport nestled just west of New York’s massive Class B airspace, the choreography we need to dance through on an IFR departure can be frustrating — especially when the weather is clear. […]

After completing several flights, it’s clear that the decision to train much closer to home at First Landings Aviation, Orlando-Apopka, was a sound one. Florida’s temperamental thunderstorms have arrived and the proximity has allowed me to reschedule canceled flights easily. And I’m really enjoying flying an LSA and the more flexible training environment. The Remos […]

Bird strikes seem to be in the news a lot recently, especially since geese brought down a US Airways Airbus 320, leading to the “miracle on the Hudson” and the article I wrote in the May 2009 issue of Flying about Things That Go Bump (Often at Night). There are other objects in the sky […]

JUNE 2010 — THE GENERAL AVIATION safety record has changed very little in decades despite continuous efforts by regulators and the industry. On the other hand, the major airlines and corporate flight departments have made great progress in reducing the number of accidents. There are many reasons for the divergence in results for the two […]

As an English major in college, I was saddled with an enormous reading load — sometimes four books a week. And the likes of Thomas Hardy, Hermann Hesse, Cervantes et al does not make for light reading. I have loved books since I was a kid, but during this time, if I wasn’t slogging through […]

A lot has changed with my training since my last blog. I had a successful Lesson 8, which was inspiring after the Lesson 7 letdown, and I was eager for the next flight. But my subsequent lessons kept getting canceled due to weather or last-minute work-related issues and the weeks between flights just kept ticking […]

Most pilots are aware of the danger of wingtip vortices from heavy fixed-wing aircraft. And they understand the wisdom of avoiding the mini-tornadoes that flow invisibly outward and down. And intuitively, we all can easily imagine that a helicopter’s rotor wash stirs up the air in the immediate vicinity — picture a turbine-powered ceiling fan. […]