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Air Facts was first published in 1938 by Leighton Collins, dedicated to “the development of private air transportation.” It’s a different world now, and it’s a different Air Facts. Relaunched in 2011 as an online journal, Air Facts still champions, educates, informs and entertains pilots worldwide with real-world flying experiences. More…
The Great Debate: too old to fly
Dick's blogWe have had the debate on pilot age and it goes on. For this one we are talking about airplanes. Will our fleet of older airplanes fly on for five more years? Ten? Forever? Do you feel as comfortable about mechanical reliability in an older airplane as in a newer one?
11 things you must do with your pilot’s license
John's blogYou worked hard, paid a lot of money and earned your pilot's license. Now what do you do? It's a question that comes up more often than most pilots care to admit. Let me suggest 10 things that every pilot should do before they die. Call it a bucket list if you want, but I consider it a flight plan.
Go or No Go: winter 182 trip
Go or No GoThis article is the first in a series called "Go or No Go?" We'll present actual weather conditions for a planned trip. You study the forecast and tell us if you would fly the trip or stay on the ground--and why.
Why do we do it?
I was thereIt doesn’t take much of a thermal to have me prepping the little white bag, so my flights are not always a pleasant experience. At least that’s what my stomach is telling me. My spirit, and flying soul, well they tell me something completely different.
Mnemonic Devices: words to fly by
HistoryWho can forget how much there is to remember piloting an airplane? FARs, cockpit procedures, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t recall right now. To make it worse, after age 26, the brain starts shrinking to the tune of two grams of tissue each year. Sometimes I’m just happy to remember to put on socks in the morning. Luckily for pilots, there were the ancient Greeks.
John’s Blog
Christmas reading list: 24 books for pilots to read in 2024
John's blogSix years after my last list, I still hate social media and I still love books, so I’m back with more recommendations—24 good aviation books for 2024. This is an eclectic mix, so I don’t expect readers to love every suggestion, but I believe there’s something for pilots to learn from almost any book, even if it doesn’t relate to aviation directly.
Weather flying means learning to read clouds
John's blogWhether I’m flying IFR or VFR, most weather decisions come down to looking at clouds and trying to figure out what they are trying to say. Is that weather convective or just harmless showers? Will the ride be bumpy or smooth? Can I top that cell? Is there ice in that cloud layer? The answer almost always depends on what the clouds look like.
What’s wrong with the teardrop pattern entry
John's blogHaving solved the impossible turn and other manufactured crises, the aviation training industry (or at least some YouTubers and keyboard warriors) has now turned its attention to the teardrop pattern entry. This “innovation” is alternately described as wildly unsafe or the only legal option for entering the traffic pattern. In reality it’s neither, but the bigger problem is that most pilots don’t even know what it means.
I Can’t Believe I Did That
The time when I almost landed short
I Can't Believe I Did ThatThe plane was perhaps 50 feet above the ground, but at least there was a smooth gravel under-run and the wheel pants were off. I had just enough energy to flare with a soft touchdown. I prepared myself for landing short. What an embarrassing end to the second leg of my Private pilot solo long cross-country.
Centerline, centerline, centerline
I Can't Believe I Did ThatThe gusting wind from the east returns, pushing the aircraft toward the right side of the runway. In a matter of a few seconds, the grass infield fills my windshield. I didn’t get the thumb into the wind and I didn’t immediately get on the left rudder pedal to steer us back to the centerline. Years of training ignored in an instant which means we are now headed into the infield.
A dead stick landing and a chance encouter with Hal Shevers
I Can't Believe I Did ThatAt about 1,500 feet hawking the wind sock to determine my landing runway. The UNICOM frequency was quiet and I saw no other planes in the pattern. I turned away to re-enter on a 45 degree downwind. As I banked back to the field came a startling assault of silence. The engine quit—politely and with no shudder—it simply stopped running. I was a glider.
Opinion
Do Crash Videos Make Us Safer Pilots?
OpinionDo you really need a YouTube expert to remind you of the dangers of flying into known icing conditions? How about thunderstorms? Flying at night over mountainous terrain in hard IMC? Yeah, I didn’t think so. In fact, if you read the comments section of a lot of these videos (please don’t read the comments section), you’ll find that there are more non-pilots than real ones. They either found the video out of morbid curiosity, or they just got lost (hey, it happens).
Anticipation
OpinionThere are many riddles to the human brain, and they are mostly borne from experience. It is more the Lamarckian trait rather than the Darwinian trait. Nothing is baked in except when it is through experience. We address life through the lens of our living. We catalogue our experiences inside the small molecules of proteins in our brain. Some from our childhood stick permanently, albeit with embellishments.
I Learned About Flying from Him
OpinionWhenever someone asks me about learning to fly, I always tell them this. Find a small country airport with no tower. Find an old taildragger to train in, a Cub or a Champ. But more importantly, find an old instructor, preferably one who wears a checked shirt and a trucker hat (suspenders optional), who has most likely forgotten more about how to fly an airplane than most of us will ever know.
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Did you know that most of the articles at Air Facts are written by readers like you? You do not have to be Richard Collins or Ernest Gann – simply a GA pilot with a story you’d share with friends sitting in the hangar.