Arkansas satellite

Go or no go: how strong is the front?

A weekend flying trip is on the calendar today, as you're scheduled to attend a family reunion in Springfield, MO. Your flight will depart from Olive Branch Airport (OLV), just outside of Memphis, TN and arrive at the Springfield Branson Airport (SGF). Your proposed departure time is 1630Z. It's time to make the go/no go call.
iPad in helicopter

Breaking in my iPad on a helo ferry

Occasionally, I get a break from the dreary doldrums of flying a FLIR-equipped MD500E police helicopter (I know, right?) with a ferry flight, moving ENG (electronic news gathering) R44s around the country. Last month, the opportunity arose to fly via airliner to Pittsburgh to move a ship to Atlanta. I thought it would be a good time to put my new iPad to the test.
Tenzing-Hillary Airport

Crappy runways

It’s known as the Pucker Factor, and everyone contracts it at that particular airport where, frankly, it sucks to land. Phil Scott reviews some of the worst, from Catalina Island to the Himalayas. Read his list, then add your own nominees.
Low clouds

Mr. Invincible

Well I finally met that guy. That guy everyone has read about. That guy who seems to be at every airport. That guy whom no one admits to being. You know, the guy who willfully violates significant federal aviation regulations and openly brags to total strangers about his near death experiences.
Thunderstorm from airplane

Do you cancel too many flights?

Some instrument pilots apparently are uncomfortable in anything less than clear skies and unlimited visibility. It raises the question: do you cancel too many flights? Has the aviation community beaten everyone over the head with the risk management stick so much that they’re gun shy? From what I read and hear, I think it’s quite possible.
172 on landing flare

Touchdown: squeak squeak every time…

So if for the past 65 years we have been able to fly and land electronically, we should be able to teach a chimpanzee, or at least a pilot, how to do it with no trouble at all. That we can’t do this is illustrated by the fact that there are more accidents on landing than in any other phase of flight.
Aztec on one engine

Considering a twin

It's the eternal debate: are twins safer than singles? This author, an experienced multiengine CFI, says yes--but only if you're willing to make a serious commitment to safety. Read his prescription for safer twin flying.

Bob Hoover and I share a secret

Did this sixteen year old notice what no one else did--the great Bob Hoover making a mistake at the Reading Air Show? New author Cragg Utman tells the story, including his conversation with Hoover years later.
Cessna 620

Cessna’s 620 – the stillborn prodigy

The Cessna 620 was unique because it was a small version of the modern airliner of the day, sized to carry half a dozen or so executives in luxury accommodations, above the weather, in pressurized, air conditioned comfort. Why did it get canceled? Harry Clements worked on the project, and shares his opinion.
On final approach

Dick’s blog: there are only good questions

Is it possible to know at all times what you’re doing when you’re flying? It is not only possible to know exactly what you are doing at all times, it is required. Put another way, right before every accident a pilot is flying without knowing everything that is going on in, with, around and about his airplane.
Top Gun

The Great Debate: dangerous pilots

There has been a lively discussion among Air Facts readers about unsafe pilots and what our responsibility is to stop them. But this begs the question: what exactly does it mean to be "unsafe?" In particular, what is the single most dangerous personality trait in a pilot?
California radar image

Go or no go: California IFR trip

Business calls today, and you need to get from your home base in Santa Barbara, California (KSBA) to San Francisco (KSFO) for an important meeting. There's a bit of fog on the coast of California, but you are instrument-rated and current. Do you make the trip?
Flight instruction

Want to fix flight training? Have some fun.

The flight training system in this country is broken. That's what a variety of sources tell us, from a detailed AOPA study to the experts at your local hangar flying session. What’s the solution? Unfortunately, it’s both easy and difficult.
RedBird FMX

Taking chances – the safe way

Regardless of your views on the training aspects of simulators, if you have an opportunity to fly a sim, I encourage you to do so. After all, it’s flying, right? Well, sort of anyway. And don’t you like to fly?
Buffalo crash

Dick’s blog: right seat upgrade?

The FAA is famous for writing proposals using illumination from burning airplane wreckage. The latest is a notice of proposed rulemaking that would increase the requirements for a pilot to serve as a first officer on U. S. passenger and cargo airlines. To say that this is probably the most sweeping change ever proposed is almost an understatement.

Recent letters

We welcome your letters at Air Facts. Whether you want to ask us a question, comment on a story or share an opinion, send us an email. Here are two of our most recent letters, both of which share some of the unique moments that only pilots experience.
User fee sign

The Great Debate: user fee questions

The greedy politicians stay on a never ending quest for more money to shovel into the abyss. Given this, and given that there has been a campaign to demonize corporate jets, the imposition of general aviation user fees is in the latest budget proposal.
runway lights at night

Magic moments

Throughout my often-interrupted flying history, there have been many memorable events, some standing out for how I scared myself through dumb cluck mistakes, and some for their delectable simplicity and beauty. The one I offer here has no drama, no risks avoided or skills demonstrated; it was just, well, a great place to be that evening. It was a place that only airmen can experience.
Morning fog

Moments of sheer terror

At about the time that I intercepted the localizer course, I went into a personal “brain dump” that could have cost me my life and defines this moment of terror. I had engaged the autopilot coupler and was in that dangerous “fat, dumb and happy” mode as I flew toward the runway exactly on course. I was in clouds and fog when something made me glance out the window.

13 questions for Mac McClellan

When we asked Air Facts editor Richard Collins 13 questions in a recent article, readers told us they wanted more. So we put EAA Director of Publications Mac McClellan on the spot in this latest edition. For over 30 years, Mac was the Editor-in-Chief of Flying magazine, where he was known for honest opinions. He shares more in this article.