Pilot Proficiency

The visual of large blue and green aluminum fragments floating in the ice-laden Potomac River as we descended on our approach into Washington National Airport is still vivid enough to remain locked in my memory. The evening prior, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737-200, had crashed into the 14th Street Bridge just after takeoff […]

No matter how rewarding and clean and bright it feels to say, “I’m going for it,” there is always a nagging doubt that maybe, just maybe, this is nuts. So it has been for me since my wife and I bought the airplane of my 50 years of flying dreams, a Beech Premier 1. Fast […]

An aircraft auxiliary power unit serves as an additional energy source normally used to start one of the main engines on an airliner or business jet. The APU is equipped with an extra electrical generator to create enough power to operate onboard lighting, galley electrics and cockpit avionics, usually while the aircraft is parked at […]

The argument is an old one: Can we teach judgment to pilots, or is the aviation industry left to simply search for pilots who already possess solid problem-solving skills? I’ve always thought the answer was somewhere in between, especially since FAA examiners like to ask applicants questions based on scenarios those pilots might encounter later […]

Relevant Discussion: AIM 5-1-3, JO 7930.2, AC 150/5200-28 NOTAM Definition: Time-critical information that is either temporary in nature or not known sufficiently in advance to permit publication on aeronautical charts or other publications. Notam (D): FICON notam — field condition notam: (JO 7930.2R, para. 5-1-4) FDC (Flight Data Center) notams: Pointer notams: SAA notams: Military […]

Sitting just north of the Los Angeles Class B airspace, Van Nuys Airport, which is Class D, is one of the busiest in the United States, with a single set of parallel runways: the 8,001-by-150-foot Runway 1/16 Right, and adjacent Runway 1/16 Left, at 4,013 by 75 feet. Last year, VNY logged just shy of […]

I was irritated to receive a phone call assigning me to a flight the next day, which was both my wedding anniversary and Thanksgiving, but such is the life of a charter pilot. I would be riding right seat in our Piaggio Avanti with its regular captain, Mike, taking a family on a last-minute flight […]

Just because some business aircraft meet the technical specifications of Level 4 Automation guidelines doesn’t necessarily mean all the flight crews operating these sophisticated systems completely understand the procedures they’re asking the computers to fly. Recently, two airports separated by some 2,500 miles have experienced nearly the same number of pilot deviations on respective RNAV […]

“Hinge moment” is the technical name for the force required to deflect a control surface. In small, relatively slow airplanes, hinge moments are not very large; pilots move the controls with ease. But as control surfaces get larger and speeds get higher, hinge moments grow rapidly. They increase with the chord length of the control […]

It was the perfect Minnesota fall day, golden and breezy with a hint of the smell of wood smoke in the air, and just enough warmth to assist one in maintaining a certain healthy denial of the bitter months to come. I drove out to Flying Cloud Airport (KFCM) with my 8-year-old nephew Dylan in […]