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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…

182 down

Landing on I-80

In 1986, shortly after our marriage, Diane and I began making cross-country flights in our C-182 to attend the annual summer reunion of University of Wisconsin classmates. These flights had always been pleasant and uneventful. In 2006, on the second leg of our trip from our home field in Palo Alto, California to Waukesha County Airport in Wisconsin, the engine began to sputter.

Palacios Airport

My time machine: a trip to a WWII training ground

I crossed mid- field, announced my intentions, and entered the pattern on the 45 for runway 13. Runway 13 is an expansive 5000 feet long and 150 feet wide. More than enough needed for my rented 1985 Piper Warrior. More than enough indeed, after all, this airfield wasn’t built for my Warrior but rather for a warrior of another type.

Columbia Glacier in Alaska

Land of the midnight sun

The most significant and defining feature of Alaska is, quite simply, its size. It’s a landscape on steroids; a wild land defying the sky to contain it in a voice that resonates with a visceral, primal power. Nowhere else in America are humans so dwarfed by the land they make noises about inhabiting.

Aeronca Champ 7AC

Dick’s blog: a solo or a new beginning

I am writing this on October 25, 2011. On October 25, 1951 I, a rebellious 17-year old juvenile delinquent, walked into the flight school office at Harrell Field in Camden, Arkansas, to take a flying lesson. My instructor, Rudy Peace, a wonderful person and pilot and later a fine friend, awaited. Also waiting was Aeronca Champ (7AC) N1154E.

John’s blog: does anyone understand NextGen?

Have you heard about NextGen? It's the FAA's plan for a Next Generation Air Transportation System, and it's going to save pilots money, protect the environment, improve safety and generally solve all the world's problems. There's just one problem with this rosy forecast--no one has any idea what NextGen means.

Radar map of the Northeast

Destination AOPA Summit

This past September, the Northeast U.S. was plagued by “the low that wouldn’t go away.” This cutoff low-pressure system sat and spun for two weeks bringing daily gloom from the Mid Atlantic to Maine. Unfortunately, in the midst of this crummy weather, I was scheduled to give a talk at AOPA’s Summit in Hartford, Connecticut on September 24th.

John’s Blog

Christmas reading list: 24 books for pilots to read in 2024

Six 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

Whether 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.

Teardrop diagram

What’s wrong with the teardrop pattern entry

Having 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.

View John’s Blog

I Can’t Believe I Did That

Citabria on grass runway

The time when I almost landed short

I Can't Believe I Did That

The 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.

airplane in grass

Centerline, centerline, centerline

I Can't Believe I Did That

The 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 That

At 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

gear up landing

Do Crash Videos Make Us Safer Pilots?

Do 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

There 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

Whenever 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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