|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Air Facts had another strong year in 2025, with a steady stream of thoughtful, engaging articles from pilots willing to share their experiences, opinions, and lessons learned. Some of the voices will be familiar, while others are newer contributors who discovered that a single good story can resonate widely within the aviation community.
What continues to make Air Facts special is that it’s built by pilots, for pilots—and sustained by those who are willing to raise a hand and say, “Here’s what I learned.” If you contributed this year, thank you. If you’ve been thinking about submitting a story in 2026, we’d love to hear from you.
Many of these articles also appeared in our Sunday morning email newsletter, which highlights new and popular stories to start the week. If you’re not already subscribed, you can sign up here.
Below are the 10 most popular Air Facts articles of 2025—enjoy revisiting (or discovering) them.
10) Throttle Mismanagement: A T-38 Lesson That Stuck
by Dale “Boots” Hill
Our Talon accelerated as it climbed toward pattern altitude—1,500 feet AGL. When I turned onto the outside downwind, about two miles west of the inside downwind, the jet slowed its acceleration but continued climbing. At pattern altitude, I leveled off, and our airspeed stabilized at 300 KIAS. During each turn, we lost about 10–15 knots, but once wings-level again, the jet quickly accelerated back to 300.
9) Trial by Ice
by Joel Turpin
At precisely 2,900 feet, the outside air temperature plummeted to -2C. There existed an extremely well-defined temperature inversion, the likes of which I had never seen, and haven’t seen since. The cabin quickly became uncomfortably cold. The entire airplane was being coated with clear ice. The windshield was now completely covered with ice and opaque. How would I see to land?
8) Final Thoughts on the Base to Final Turn
by Ed Wischmeyer
There are many statements that say that a base to final spin cannot happen from a slipping turn. However, I used to demonstrate that slipping base to final spin entry to my primary students right before I sent them for their checkride, just so that they would take the base to final turn with appropriate seriousness.
7) The Arrogant Pilot
by Peterson Conway
I steered over the southbound lane, and started counting overpasses. On battery power I flashed my lights, rocked my wings. Two high speed oncoming SUVs splintered around me, cleaving my once aerial view now suddenly into a terrestrial one. I dove under a high tension power line and violently pulled back up before yanking hard on my flaps.
6) ADS-Fee?
by Alexander Sack
Vector Airport Systems is a small Arlington-based firm that specializes in aircraft-fee billing and collection services. If you haven’t yet heard of them, they offer airport managers a turnkey, non-contact solution called PLANEPASS, which monitors all aircraft operations and automatically bills operators accordingly—including, you guessed it, landing fees.
5) An Icy Saab Story
by Chris Schaich
We had just been cleared for the ILS approach to runway 30R when a mayday was declared on frequency. My attention immediately tuned to the voice in my ear. A DC-9 ahead of us had just lost an engine having run into freezing rain. I felt my heart jump as I started to contemplate what we were about to run into. The first officer and I looked at each other in disbelief. Do we go around and divert to our alternate through now unpredictable conditions to an airport miles away?
4) I Am UNSAFE Checklist—Lessons Learned on a Fateful Night
by Bob Hamilton
You get experience by making mistakes and surviving, and then, as a result, become a safer more confident pilot. Some mistakes, however, we just should not make. This is a story of one of those chain of mistakes that did not result in an accident and that I escaped from unscathed with way more experience than I had ever wanted.
3) How I Failed My IFR Practical Test Twice
by Carl Smith
The airplane lacked the more advanced avionics like Garmin G5s and even the heading indicator did not have a heading bug. After what seemed about 10 minutes into the flight, the directional gyro had apparently drifted. And when I looked at the Garmin 530 to see the heading I should be flying, I turned to that heading which ultimately resulted in a full needle deflection. The examiner then delivered the news that I had failed because of the full-scale course deviation.
2) The NTSB Got It Wrong on TWA Flight 841
by Jerry Lawler
As a retired B-727 captain, this is why I believe the NTSB got it wrong on TWA 841 and Captain Hoot Gibson and his crew. On April 4, 1979, TWA 841 was involved in an out-of-control spin over Michigan. At that time, I was the ALPA Captain Representative of the Chicago-based pilots and was flying the B-727 from the Chicago O’Hare (ORD) domicile.
1) The Starlink Era is Here—Will We Regret It?
by John Zimmerman
The dawning of a new technological era is rarely apparent in real time. Sorry to say, in spite of what you read on LinkedIn or watch on YouTube, every press release does not constitute a revolution. Having said that, March 18, 2025 felt like the beginning of something important. That was the day Starlink, the satellite internet company owned by SpaceX, announced a price cut of more than 50% for their most popular in-motion subscription plan (to $65/mo.), at the same time they raised the maximum speed to 350 mph.
- Announcing the 2026 Richard Collins Writing Prize for Young Pilots - January 6, 2026
- Five Favorite Friday Photos of 2025 - January 2, 2026
- Top Air Facts Articles of 2025 - December 29, 2025
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!