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Not every threat is directly controlled by someone on the ground. Some are just lazily drifting about, riding the winds, rising into the skies on their own. Of course, I’m talking about balloons. And not just party balloons either. Large balloons are used in many scientific fields, including meteorological research. An estimated 90,000 free balloons […]

The article covered how procedures can be unavailable for alternate planning, but what about those that are available, but require non-standard alternate minimums? The standard alternate minimums are simple: 600-2 for precision approaches, and 800-2 for non-precision approaches. But non-standard alternate minimums can seem quite complicated. Non-standard alternate ceilings and/or visibilities are published for an […]

When I learned IFR, the oddball technique for GA pilots was the DME Arc. These were the days of turn 10, twist 10, which was the best we had for approximating a curve using the straight-line navigation of VORs and slant-range distance. When GPS came on the scene, the box simply drew the magenta line in an arc and we, or George, followed it. An era was over.

A short IFR flight should be easier in a glass cockpit. Youve got all the information you need just a twist and a push away-so long as you know without thinking which knob to twist and which button to push.

Most thunderstorm-related accidents happen when departing or approaching the airport. Flying near the convective cloud bases exposes you to the most dangerous aspects of a thunderstorm. Reduced visibility, low ceilings, hail, strong straight-line winds and lightning are all possibilities, but more imperceptible hazards lurk.

[IMGCAP(1)]Question: What do pilots hate most of all? Answer: Check rides Question: Other than check rides, what do pilots hate most of all? Answer: FAA ramp checks Question: OK, other than check rides and ramp checks, what do pilots hate most of all? Answer: Thunders… Enough. What pilots hate, almost more than anything else are surprises. This might not be obvious, but think about it. If you know whats coming, youre prepared for it, but the unexpected requires…

Standing to get a closer view of my towers radar display, I said, That doesnt look right. Somewhere in the dense, ragged and choppy 300-foot overcast outside the tower windows, there was a Piper Matrix inbound on the ILS. Well, supposedly on the ILS. His target was crossing the final approach fix several hundred feet lower than published and a half mile to the right.

It used to be the procedure turn (PT) was the lynchpin of many an instrument approach. Youd track to the VOR or NDB station located on the airport, fly outbound, use a PT to reverse course, and fly back to the station on a specific course while descending to the specified minimum descent altitude. If you didnt visually acquire the airport, locating the missed approach point was a simple matter of identifying station passage.

I get the question a lot: Whats the best iPad app for aviation? Its impossible to answer. Not only is there no perfect app for all users, the field changes so quickly advice is only good until the competition releases its next update. In fact, I cant even answer whats the best app for only chart use under IFR.

Despite the magazine vogue of articles on glass cockpits and technologically advanced airplanes, thousands of us continue to fly steam gauges. A well-equipped steam-gauge airplane enables a competent pilot to fly the same mission that a glass airplane can fly. The Apollo spacecraft were steam-gauge equipped and carried men to the moon.