Weather

Piper Aircraft introduced its new interim president and CEO John Calcagno at EAA AirVenture on Monday, July 26, and Calcagno expressed enthusiasm for his new role at the legendary manufacturer after 11 years as its CFO. “It goes without saying that I’m honored to be here at Piper Aircraft,” and he went on to stress […]

In a round-up of news from the first half of 2021—and a couple of brand-new updates—Avidyne promoted several key products and milestones at the Aircraft Electronics Association convention in Dallas, Texas, on June 22. “We’ve had a lot of great things to share since we all last saw each other,” said Tom Harper, director of […]

I became a private pilot 20 years ago, not long after my 19th birthday. Like every new pilot, I couldn’t wait to take my first passenger for a ride. The day after the check ride, I called one of my best college friends and invited him to the airport for a sightseeing flight in a […]

On a Sunday morning in April 2004, an air-ambulance helicopter approaching to land in VFR conditions found a blanket of fog forming over the Ukiah Municipal Airport (KUKI) in California. The automatic surface-observation system reported a 100-foot overcast and visibility between 1 and 1¾ miles. The ATP-rated pilot obtained a clearance for the localizer approach […]

When the text blipped across my iPhone screen, I couldn’t help but grin. My friend—and JetBlue captain—Mike Strauss and his wife, Christa, were inviting my wife and I to his newly purchased home in Colorado. One of the attractive aspects of the invitation was that the trip out west would be flown in his Cessna […]

On February 25, 2020, my granddaughter, who lives with her husband in Hollywood, Florida, gave birth to a little boy, a first great grandson for my wife and me. As it turned out, I was scheduled to be out of my office at a three-day conference in Washington, D.C., the following week. With a quick […]

A certain amount of an airline pilot’s life is given over to marking time on and around airports, and that is doubly true of the junior captain on reserve. I am currently ensconced in the midcentury-modern environs of the TWA Hotel, built around Eero Saarinen’s soaring TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport. […]

How many times has it happened to you? Having your mobile device fall asleep or you need to cycle through to another app in the midst of a big Airport Data download to ForeFlight? The app will now continue to download the charts and data selected when the app shifts to the background, so pilots […]

Garmin Aviation has debuted its latest weather radar system, the GWX 8000 StormOptix, with the aim to reduce pilot workload further during the demanding periods in flight when they must negotiate severe weather aloft. The system, which is directed first as a replacement unit for the radar systems integrated with the Garmin G5000 flight deck, […]

Weather is one of the biggest variables in general aviation flight and a contributing cause of many accidents. While there is no way for us pilots to control the weather, we can modify our flight paths to prevent unplanned encounters with Mother Nature. Fortunately, doing so has become a lot easier in the past few […]