Weather

In more than 40 years of flying, Mary Schu says she has never been more frightened than the day she encountered extreme ­icing in flight. Schu flies in Oregon, one of the United States’ “iceboxes.” She’s the National Association of Flight Instructors’ 2015 Flight Instructor of the Year as well as an FAA-designated pilot ­examiner. […]

Whether your airplane is approved for flight in known icing conditions or not, there are a number of common-sense strategies you can put into practice to minimize your risks of ice-related hazards. First, never take off with any amount of ice, snow or frost on your airplane. If you do, you’re a test pilot flying […]

The airspeed indicator always has been one of a pilots most useful tools for measuring aircraft performance. Its colorful, with white and green, maybe a pair of red lines and a blue one, and maybe some yellow. And theres that big white needle we use for bragging rights. Early on, we were taught some of the most important speeds we need to know and use arent marked on it. One of them is the airplanes design maneuvering speed (VA), sometimes confused with the turbulent air penetration speed, which perhaps is better known as design speed for maximum gust intensity (VB).But is there a difference between VA and VB? What is it, and when do you use them? Why? Which should we be concerned more with as a pilot, and when? And airplanes are stressed to lower negative-G limits than their positive G-load limit-what about negative-G encounters in turbulence? Lets look at the operational reality of airspeed and G-load control in turbulent air.

My best friend, Mike,­ and I woke to the subtle muttering of raindrops and realized that beyond the curtains of our Ketchikan, Alaska, motel room there was only gray, dismal sky. Damn. At that moment a scenario began that could have ended up as an NTSB accident report, starting with unquantifiable indicators and an irrational […]

Tornadoes had caused extensive damage and loss of life in central Kansas — the area from which we had departed in our airplane that very morning. There had been a wild weather rampage all the way from Oklahoma to Nebraska. The video on TV that evening was dramatic. Had I taken an extreme risk to […]

Garmin is expanding its online course curriculum with a course designed to help pilots interpret onboard weather radar data. Weather radar is a terrific tool for pilots to avoid adverse conditions in the sky and help them make better weather-related decisions. Garmin’s Weather Radar Operations eLearning Course teaches pilots basic and intermediate weather radar operations, […]

As we all know, bad weather can wreak havoc on air traffic flow for all airplanes from light single-engine propeller airplanes to heavy airliners. Here is a cool video that shows the traffic flow around Atlanta during a time of severe but localized thunderstorms. The video shows the accelerated flight paths of airplanes going into […]

The passengers of a Delta Air Lines Airbus A320 got the fright of their lives on Friday on their way from Boston to Salt Lake City when the pilots of the airliner flew into a storm with extreme hail but subsequently managed to make an improvised emergency landing in Denver. The airplane suffered major structural […]

After just over two years of flying our Comanche, Martha and I “needed” a second engine, and more knobs, levers, switches and gauges. In short, we “needed” a Twin Comanche. But we couldn’t afford one. That’s why the “bargain” Twin Comanche in Trade-A-Plane caught our eye. We knew the airplane would be rough, but we […]

We have witnessed some pretty challenging crosswind landings in the U.K. recently, but this might be a landing to top even the most hair-raising descents. Last weekend a KLM Boeing 777 was captured on video — that has since gone viral — while making its way into Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport during what is being called […]