Dakota

A stupid decision: ignoring the oil pressure gauge

I was pretty sure that we had an oil problem, but the oil temp and CHTs all seemed OK. About this time, the little voice in the back of everyone’s head had begun to chide me for not landing somewhere while things were just bothersome, not really a problem yet. Of course, I overruled it. Memo for file: pay more attention to little voices in the future.
John Glenn and Kent Ewing in Baron

Reader question: what pilot, past or present, would you most like to fly right seat with?

When you fly with another pilot, you learn a lot about who they are and how they approach life. That has us wondering: if you could fly with any pilot - living or dead - who would you choose? Charles Lindbergh? Beryl Markham? Chuck Yeager? Someone more obscure - maybe a family member?
Beech Lightning

What doomed the Beech Lightning?

Given its string of success in evolutionary model design it was natural for people at Beech to continue to look for more ways to evolve their airplanes in new directions. In the early 1980s somebody, or perhaps a small group of people, realized they had the basis for a very good single-engine turboprop.

Friday Photo: an ocean of clouds

Sometimes the sun and clouds combine for the perfect cockpit view. That's what helicopter pilot Scott Monroe saw on this day over Oakland, California. The rolling wave of clouds was highlighted by a low sun angle and framed perfectly by Mt. Diablo in the background. For folks on the ground, it just looked like a cloudy day.

Surprise at 11,000 feet

Just as we were flying over Memphis at 11,000 feet, I was enjoying looking out at the city on my side when all of the sudden there was a huge forward surge as the engine quit and alarms, tones, and buzzers all started sounding! I immediately pulled back on the yoke and shouted, “What happened?!”
Route to Chicago

Flying 275 miles so I could run 26.2 miles

Last October my parents and I flew to the 2018 Chicago Marathon. We could have driven six hours from Ohio and paid $70/night to park the car at the hotel, flown commercially, or taken the flight school’s Piper Arrow on the 275nm flight. We elected to take the Arrow.
Cessna 150

One last airplane ride for Dad

I spent the day after he died doing the things one does, particularly trying to figure out what to do with his ashes. One friend, a pilot at my airline, asked what the funeral plans were. I told her that we would probably inter Dad out there at the Jordan Cemetery in Indiana. Knowing something of his aeronautical passions, she texted back, “Oh, that’d be nice. He’d get one last airplane ride.”

Friday Photo: Swiss peaks on a solo cross-country

This week's Friday Photo comes from Aaron Ochsner, who says, "When I was a kid, I used to hike up this mountain every weekend with my dad (you can see the trail snaking up the side). Today I got a bird’s eye view of that same peak. Soon I’ll be able to take my dad up to see it with me."
Fuel truck

The teacher becomes the student

Bob was listening intently while I droned on about the dangers of getting jet fuel pumped in by accident from the wrong truck. “Like this one?” he said as soon as I stopped talking. I looked at the fuel truck sitting right in front of me, pumping fuel in the nose tank as I was speaking, and read the words, JET FUEL, written boldly on the side of the tank.
Gear handle

From now on, I’ll always…

Airlines spend a lot of time crafting standard operating procedures (SOPs), which describe in exquisite detail how each part of a flight should be conducted. For the average private pilot, such formal SOPs are probably overkill and remove some of the flexibility that makes general aviation so rewarding. Instead, a few simple habits can prevent embarrassment - or worse.
Langewiesche by Cub

From the archives: Wolfgang Langewiesche on quiet airplanes

In this prescient article from 50 years ago, legendary pilot and writer Wolfgang Langewiesche considered the role of general aviation airports in a world of ever-expanding suburban communities. He saw the need for a quieter breed of airplanes in order to prevent a public backlash. Now, with electric airplanes tentatively finding a foothold, this article seems as relevant as ever.
Arrow IV

A trip to Mexico in the best of the worst airplanes ends in a costly fiasco

Most of the airplane's weight was on the wings as we rolled across a furrow somewhat larger than the others about halfway through our takeoff run. Bouncing slightly, the momentary lack of weight on the wheels fooled the "foolproof" gear system into performing its duty. The left wheel, now unlocked and slightly off-center, collapsed as the plane's weight returned to the wheels.

Friday Photo: FL430 from a Lear 45XR

Paul Bowen says, "This was taken on my first ever flight in the Lear 45 since my sim training at CAE Dallas West. Watching the sun set from 43,000ft on your first ever real jet flight is a truly unforgettable experience. And what better aircraft that the truly iconic Lear!"
747 takeoff

Dear NASA: learning from my mistakes

The Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) is where maintenance technicians, pilots, controllers, etc. can anonymously report inadvertent violations of regulations or unsafe conditions which resulted from their action (or inaction). I have never been deterred from submitting an ASRS report for a transgression, mistake or bad decision. And I’ve had plenty of material to work with.
Freeway at night

My night engine-out emergency

I could see the lights of Concord from a little south of Fairfield, so I turned south. This put us over an area of wetlands but highway 80 was within very easy gliding distance off to our right. Then it happened. Right over Suisun Bay where the Navy stores a large number of dilapidated ships, our engine decided to cough, sputter, lose all power.

Go or No Go: winter warm front

"Messy aviation weather today." That's what the forecaster wrote in the forecast discussion this morning and a look at the TV screen in the FBO at the Elkinds-Randolph County Airport (EKN) confirms that. The radar images shows lots of rain in the area and the forecast is for things to get worse. That's mildly annoying, as you'd really like to get back home, a 1:15 flight to Raleigh, North Carolina.
Tri Pacer

A Tri Pacer is not an Alaska bush plane

Taxiing took almost full throttle, and there was no way in which the plane would take off with the pilot and two passengers. We were now stuck on George’s choice of lakes. I suspected that we might have made the takeoff with a Piper Pacer, but with a nose gear poking down up front, there was no way we were leaving that small lake in our small, four-place tricycle-geared flying machine.
Sunset

Friday Photo: Chicago sunset

Why we fly - that's Scott Fernandez's three word summary of this photo, and it explains pretty well the magic of being a pilot. Watching the last light fade from the western sky as you climb out in a light airplane is both exciting and peaceful, and it is indeed why we fly.
Piper Comanche

An interrupted checklist leads to some excitement

I checked in with Washington Center, listening for the “…proceed direct Savannah.” Suddenly silence. The engine quit without warning. I had lost an engine before in a Cherokee when a cylinder apparently began eating a valve. That made a lot of noise. This was instant silence.
Archerfield airport

Near miss in the pattern

This very near-miss incident took place several years ago on a VFR approach to Archerfield (YBAF), in Queensland, Australia, a usually busy Class D general aviation training airfield adjacent to the state capital city of Brisbane, and it haunts me to this day. As a way of talking it out, I tender it here for my fellow pilots to read and consider and perhaps comment on.