The Finer Points

I overheard a conversation years ago on a Colorado mountain flying trip that really stands out in my mind. It was long before I began running my own mountain trips (I was a hired gun on this one) and it stands out because I lost all respect for one of my colleagues that day, an […]

When I was a child there was an apple tree in our front yard. It was a joy. In the summertime you could walk up to that tree, shake it and feast on those delicious loose apples that were just about ready to fall to the ground on their own but hadn’t yet. Sometimes, if […]

On August 30, 2016, at 1801 Pacific daylight time, a Beechcraft A36 Bonanza was destroyed when it impacted the ground in a near vertical descent, likely as a result of a wake turbulence encounter on approach to landing at Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Reno, Nevada. The thing that caught my attention was that the pilot […]

I realized at some point during my instrument training that airplanes are a lot more like horses than they are like cars, and pilots can learn a lot by approaching their machines with this in mind. As a child I rode horses — a lot. We had four of them on our property. As a […]

Short final was normal. Winds were manageable, we were cleared to land and the airplane touched down straight and on the centerline. In no particular hurry, we slowed and exited on the taxiway abeam our hangar line when my student said to me, “Why is my 430 dark?” Face palm. I knew instantly why the […]

In our new online series, The Finer Points, CFII Jason Miller gives you the information and tools you’ll need to become not just a better pilot, but a truly exceptional aviator. On August 27, 2006, a regional airliner taxied onto the wrong runway in the semi dark of morning and attempted a takeoff on a […]