Meigs airport

I was at Meigs Field

Hours after Dr. Shehl closed the canopy door on his 1980 Bonanza, and went to his nearby hotel, bulldozers would roll onto Meigs. Under the cover of darkness, and without any notice or approval, Chicago’s mayor, Richard Daley, drove old Meigs Field down.

Taxiing vs. Flying—Which is Harder?

Just after we landed at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Runway 9. “Citation 246GF, turn left on Runway 13, right on Alpha, left on Echo, right on Echo Two to parking with me.”  We were the only aircraft moving at the airport.  The the call sounded like: “Citation246GFturnleftonRunway31rightonAlphaleftonEchorightonEchoTwotoparkwithme.”

Friday photo: Approach into York, PA (KTHV) Runway 35

Approach to York Airport (KTHV) Runway 35, York, Pennsylvania. The summer brings opportunities for late flying, sunsets, and just beautiful green landscape.

An action packed day on the Boeing 727

the flight continued normally until approaching PHL when we noticed various indications of low hydraulic pressure in our “A” hydraulic system.  Something about flap extension had caused a loss of pressure and quantity. 

The friends I do not know

I glance off to my left at the area along the south end of runway 18. He’s there. The friend I don’t know, yet we have become friends because I fly to OC8 often. He and his dog are always there. The dog never runs onto the runway, yet races around happily. I envision him as a Border Collie, though in truth I have no idea.

Caught above an overcast layer results in first encounter with IMC

By the time I did a 180 degree turn, there wasn’t a spot of open ground to be seen from horizon to horizon. At this point in my training, I didn’t even know what an approach plate was, but I knew I needed some kind of a plan for what to do next. What happened in the next few minutes was a combination of beginner’s luck with the benefit of a recent lesson on instrument familiarization from my instructor.

From the archives: Patrolling the Chesapeake Bay by seaplane

The seaplane patrol has special authority to fly at unusually low levels because the effectiveness of his work depends on his ability to see what's going on at close range. When he's "on target”—that is, when he has determined that a boat crew is fishing illegally—he is frequently within 75 feet of the pirate fishermen.

Cross-country to T25 in my Sonex

I climbed to 5,500’ after leaving Rolla and, as I crossed the Mark Twain National Forest, I saw a groundspeed rise to more than 160 mph. KARG was one of my original planned stops and my planning paid off well. The FBO let me rent an old hangar to house the Sonex and invited me to use the  courtesy car. The camaraderie in aviation never ceases to amaze me.

Friday photo: B17 over the Boeing plant

I thought what better than to fly the iconic Boeing B-17G over the Boeing plant to mark the day. Shiny new jets were parked below as the old gal still gracefully flies overhead 87 years since the first B-17 rolled off the assembly floor. 
iPad in cockpit

Webinar video: Flying with Datalink Weather

Datalink weather, either from ADS-B or SiriusXM, is an essential tool for almost all pilots. Once you’ve flown a cross country with in-flight radar, up-to-date METARs, and visual AIRMETs, it’s awfully hard to go back to flying without it. It makes flying safer, easier, and more comfortable – a rare combination - but only if you know how to use it properly.
Thunderstorm

Flirting with the tropopause

The suffix pause denotes a boundary among the four layers of the atmosphere. The first pause is the tropopause, dividing the troposphere and stratosphere. There, jet streams corkscrew the globe like atmospheric snakes and create turbulence. Airline pilots strive to bestow passengers with a smooth ride, so knowing where the tropopause is in relation to the aircraft's flight level is a must.

Lost Over the Mediterranean: A Pilot’s Tale of Lessons Learned

A seemingly trivial error in tuning into the right frequency left us cut off from the Greek control tower and without any responses from the Cypriots. Modern electronics surrounded us, but their benefits remained elusive, mainly due to our unfamiliarity with Garmin’s intricacies. The vast blue of the Mediterranean below and the open skies above became our only constants.
FCM to ABR

Go or No Go: windy weekend escape

As a longtime resident of Minnesota, you're used to fast-changing weather—and this week is no exception. After some beautiful 75-degree days, a fall cold front has come slamming through the Upper Midwest, dropping temperatures by 25 degrees and kicking up the wind. Will that ruin your weekend plans, which involve flying to meet some friends at a lodge in South Dakota?  Read the weather forecast below and tell us what you would do.

The Silent Treatment: Techniques in Learning

I clearly couldn’t hear what she was trying to say to me, so she had the wisdom to leave her ego at the door that day and line up another instructor who she thought could take the same concept and say it in a way that would somehow get through to me.  In essence, she brought in another stone mason.

Friday photo: flying over the southern Nevada and California border

Looking south/southeast over the Nevada and California border on a training/repositioning flight in a CE425 at FL230 flying from Carson City, Nevada (KCXP) to Santa Barbara, California (KSBA).

Never a dull moment at a flight school

This guy would aggressively slam the aircraft into a 45-degree bank in the traffic pattern, turning from downwind to base, for example, with a maniacal grin on his face. I suspect he was a successful businessman, used to kind of getting his own way. I tried to convince him that flying like that often led to sudden death, but he smirked.

A Bad Plan is Better Than No Plan At All

The photo of the bridge disappearing into an unknown would tell the story that I was also flying into an unknown. But rather than the whiteness of a marine layer, it was the blackness of oil. Blowing out my cowling. While I flew on unawares, my wife shifted in her seat, looking out into the horizon, as if she knew already that life traded on the thinnest of margins.

Aviation is the universal language

The pilot indicated with hand gestures that I should taxi out. I held the brakes while we ran a pre-takeoff checklist. Checklist completed, the pilot indicated that I should proceed with the takeoff. After checking for traffic I rolled out on the runway centerline and applied full power and soon we were airborne.

Bird strikes

Hearing a loud ‘BOOM!’, my IP said, “Sounds like someone had an afterburner blowout!”  We turned and watched as the two aircraft flew by and noted things were amiss.  The lead aircraft was trailing a longer than normal, bright red/yellow afterburner flame which was not the normal afterburner pattern or color.

The new Helio Courier pilot

In real wind, say 25 to 30 MPH, the pitching up of the nose happens the instant you hit throttle for takeoff. In that moment you look and feel like a praying mantis, tilted all up on long front legs, charging down the runway. A new Helio pilot will find this more than a little strange.