Training

Matthew McDaniel is a four-time Master Flight Instructor who’s logged over 11,000 hours in more than 70 aircraft types. He’s owned and operated Progressive Aviation Services LLC (progaviation.com), specializing in technically advanced aircraft and glass cockpit training, since 2002. He says: “Being a truly good pilot is a multifaceted skill: airmanship, knowledge and judgment. One […]

Harry Kraemer is an ATP, CFI-I, MEI, Master Flight Instructor and president of Kraemer Aviation Services (flymall.org) He says: “There is an old aviation saying: ‘Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.’ And another that goes: ‘A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid those situations which require the use […]

Restrictions on foreign students receiving recurrent training could be easing up. This week, the Transportation Security Administration is expected to reduce the bureaucratic hurdles currently in place. Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, foreign pilots with type ratings in aircraft more than 12,500 pounds MTOW (maximum takeoff weight) needed to complete a vetting process every […]

David St. George is a Part 141 chief instructor at East Hill Flying Club (ehfc.net) in upstate New York and a designated pilot examiner (fearlessflighttest.com). David has flown more than 10,000 hours of dual instruction and given more than 1,500 flight evaluations in 40 years of flying. David says: “The easy answer is: ‘when you […]

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 […]

During one of my Sport Pilot lessons with First Landings Aviation’s Chris Esposito, we had just finished up practicing stalls and steep turns off the north shore of Lake Apopka on yet another gorgeous morning. I had been wondering when we would be practicing engine-out scenarios and asked Chris out of curiosity if one of […]

If students aren’t sure whether they will end up flying an airplane with glass cockpit technology or not for training, which is better — transitioning to glass, or transitioning to analog instruments? Marty Blaker is a CFI who, as vice president of avionics course development for King Schools, oversaw the development of its Garmin G1000 […]

JUNE 2010 — WITH A SUBTLETY BORNE through years of experience, the captain pushed the power levers forward on the Super 80. Other than the occasional rattle and the whirring of the nosewheel below our feet, the cockpit was absent the typical sounds of a jet airplane accelerating. Engines mounted at the far end of […]

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 […]