Landing gear lights

Landing gear malfunction over the desert offers lesson in resource management

Suddenly the caution light got my attention indicating that the landing gear was not in a safe position. Soon thereafter, the landing gear circuit breaker popped. I looked immediately in the exterior inspection mirror located on the engine cowling and could see the landing gear dangling precariously in between an up and down position.
VL-3 airplane

Five changes the new MOSAIC rule could bring to aviation

The word mosaic can be a noun, meaning a beautiful arrangement of glass, or an adjective, as in the tablets that Charlton Heston brought down from the mountain. Whether you view the FAA’s recently released Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification (MOSAIC) proposal as a work of art or a restrictive set of commandments from on high, this 300-page document will definitely change general aviation.

Friday photo: pyrocumulus cloud in Australia

Capturing a farmer's field burn-off producing a cumulus cloud of its own on reaching the cloud base a thousand feet below me.
Route overview

Go or No Go: never judge a forecast by its radar image

No matter how often your instrument instructor told you to look beyond the radar image, you still start every preflight planning session with a look at the green and yellow on ForeFlight's Maps page. Unfortunately, today's map looks quite colorful, with rain all over the eastern half of the US. That could be a problem, since you're trying to fly your Mooney 201 from your home in Richmond, VA (RIC), to Charleston, SC (JZI), for a family vacation. Read the forecast below and tell us if it's a go or a no go.
Swift

Is your airplane maintenance legal, safe, or neither?

The airplane was rough at best - high time engine, old radios, needed paint.  The mechanic asked if the owner had the log books.  He produced them, and as the mechanic looked through them, he asked “Who does your annuals?”  The reply was “Oh, I do them myself and have (mechanic name) sign them off for me.”  Was the airplane legal?  The logs book said so, but in reality, it was neither legal or safe.
Cessna on final

Hard lessons learned

Suddenly, the engine started running very roughly. They always say flying is long hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. I put the carb heat on and things seemed to settle down. A few minutes later, the engine roughness and coughing started again with the engine almost dying and then surging back to life in cycles.
Runway lights

A night flight I’ll never forget

My unfamiliarity with the airplane, its engine, and perhaps the fact that Goff was red-lining his airplane which had 30 more horsepower made the gap between us increase more and more until the dot I was following on my wind screen which I believed was Goff turned out to be an insect splatter. Suddenly, I was flying alone and in the dark.

One hour closer to your first accident

Within minutes, I'm flying 30 degrees to the left to hold the same heading in clear air while pointing this out to my copilot. Looking past the airport, there was a long string of clouds up next to the Front Range. Down from the clouds comes a long skinny “S” shaped tornado. Our friend in the back seat says, “You know we are flying towards a Tornado.”

Friday photo: deviating around a thunderstorm

As I neared my destination, ATC called and suggested I divert around a thunderstorm along my route. After putting the airplane away, I sent my sister this picture. I forgot about it until she gave me a framed reprint for Christmas.
FOD

FAA Foreign Object Debris Program

The presence of FOD is a continuing concern at our nation’s airports. FOD creates safety hazards and can ultimately impact safe operations by damaging aircraft. Airports, Airlines, and the General Aviation community have taken the necessary steps to minimize FOD by engaging in successful FOD management programs.

Witnessing a horrific accident forges a pilot’s journey

First, we could see the top of the plane and the top tip of the tail through the gaps in the tops of the trees. Then the windshield, then the wings, and then over the whine of the engine there was a ‘CRACK’ and the plane shuttered. The nose rose sharply then sank. ‘CRACK’ ‘CRACK’ ‘CRACK’ it began to shear out the tops of the trees as the nose pitched further and further down.
Landing gear lights

A Precautionary Landing and The Human Body’s Reaction to Fear

I tell the Tower my gear lights don’t indicate three green down in locked. The young man's voice asked me “Would you like a flyby?”  He wanted to know if I wanted to “fly by” the tower for him to look. Then he asked me “How many souls on board?”
Citation on ramp

Better ramp etiquette is needed

The Beechcraft King Air pilots spend the next 15 minutes holding the adjacent aircraft captive before finally getting underway.  It is the longest fifteen minutes of the day for passengers on both airplanes.  Pilots and passengers still in the lobby must also wait until the coast is clear.

From my love of aviation comes the Freedom Aviation Network

All I heard was, “It’s too dangerous, you don’t want to do that, it’s too expensive, you would need to go to the military to get enough hours, women aren’t pilots, and you would never get hired at an airline.”  So, I started to believe that maybe flying wasn’t for me. But I saw an ad for a free ground school class in aviation, so I signed up.

Friday photo: Hollywood sign

For destinations east, SoCal Departure will often direct pilots along the ridge of the Hollywood Hills. A glance and quick snap below delivered my new favorite view of this iconic landmark.

Video: Patty Wagstaff on flying aerobatics

Patty Wagstaff is one of the most famous airshow pilots in history as a six-time member of the U.S. Aerobatic Team, the first woman to win the title of U.S. National Aerobatic Champion, and one of the few people to win it three times. She'll share her decades of experience flying aerobatics to show you how aerobatics can help improve your pilot skills.
Airline takeoff

A runway incident that continues to haunt

After what seemed like centuries of silence, I looked to my right and noticed it was quickly getting brighter - much brighter - when all of a sudden, over the hump in the runway appeared a very large aircraft whose bright landing lights were mimicking noon. It was growing in size, accelerating by the second.
Microsoft copilot

What pilots can teach the world about AI

In 2023, Covid has rapidly receded from the headlines, but now artificial intelligence (AI) is here to kill us. That’s according to many prominent voices in the computer science community, and more than a few traffic-chasing news outlets too. Once again, I believe pilots have relevant experience to share on this topic. In fact, how to manage technology has been the defining aviation debate of the last 50 years.
Instrument approach from cockpit

Video: what really matters to ATC in an IFR flight plan

Most of the information filed in an IFR flight plan is based on weather forecasts that are released well before your wheels ever leave the ground. Here's a look at what parts of the flight plan actually matter to ATC so that you know how to react if and when the weather conditions don't match the forecast.
Cub in the grass

My secret forced landing

Then the Cub quit flying. It just fell out of the sky and plopped into a farmer’s field. The soft soil not only absorbed my abrupt landing, but also stopped the airplane in just a matter of feet. The tail plopped down. It was over.