Pilot Proficiency

One of the best parts of being a flight instructor is that it gives you the opportunity to have a positive impact on someone’s life. Just as we tend to remember our favorite teachers from school, most pilots can remember their favorite flight instructors. One such example is Gerald (Jerry) Griggs, from Wichita, Kansas, who […]

When it comes to a fire or a potential fire onboard, take the conservative route.

Oregon incident can teach us all an important lesson in being honest with yourself.

Authorities from Sweden and the United Kingdom wanted more emphasis on crew mistakes.

How can you prepare for the mindset of the pilot in the other seat?

(July 2011) It was a silence I wasn’t used to. Actually, it wasn’t all that quiet what with the whirr of hummingbirds’ wings, the braying of burros and the cooing of doves. But what I wasn’t hearing was the sound of airplanes. For the two months I spent in Oaxaca, Mexico, last winter, the skies […]

As the days get shorter and shorter, CFI Michael Wildes gives you ways to make flying at night easier—and safer.

Cessna’s Citation Special Olympics Airlift is set to take off this weekend, the latest in a long series of such airlifts started by Cessna back in 1987. This year the big change is that many of the athletes will be flying in airplanes built by Beechcraft, Cessna’s new sister company under the Textron Aviation banner. […]

An unusual pilot’s dramatic crash in the Sunshine State still has investigators wondering what happened many years later.

We taxied up in front of the line of four police cars as we were directed by ground control, instead of to the FBO where our friends were waiting. Martha said, “This is going to be interesting.” As we shut down the engine, we heard the bullhorn aimed at us and a voice: “Pilot, very […]