ADS-B radar

When the margins get thin

Richard Collins once summed up risk management, a subject that now elicits PhD-level jargon, in four simple words: “it’s all about margins.” Shave the margins too close and you're one bit of bad luck away from an accident. The importance of those margins was driven home for me on a recent flight in a Pilatus PC-12, when I allowed schedule pressure to reduce them just a little too much, but not in the usual way.
PATCO strike

8-3-1981: the day the FAA disappeared

The recent discussion about the ill-advised privatization of the air traffic control system sent my thoughts twirling back to a day and time when the system actually came to a screeching halt and we had no system, public or private.
Jackson Hole

Old Navigators Never Die, But They Do Fade Away

One of my favorite flying memories happened while I was a part-time single-engine Part 135 charter pilot for the FBO at Laramie, Wyoming. My occasional charter flights were a welcome respite from my law office, allowing me to meet people who weren’t in legal trouble and to take them places I might not have gone otherwise.

Friday Photo: sunset over Grand Lake, Oklahoma

David and Judy Smart were up for a sunset flight in their Cessna 172 when everything came together. The sun dipped in between clouds on the horizon, throwing a soft shadow over Grand Lake O' the Cherokees, in Northeast Oklahoma. David says it's "perhaps the most beautiful sunset we have ever witnessed together." Hard to argue with that.
CB panel in Cessna

Should I touch that circuit breaker?

Checklists are great, but consider this: can you locate all of the circuit breakers mentioned in the procedures in less than five seconds? Why not? It’s a bad idea to hunt for circuit breakers during an abnormal situation.
Solo picture

Learning to fly: a serendipitous journey

I started out as a boy who was scared to death of flying and ended up falling in love with it while going to see a sick grandfather who, coincidentally, had once been a private pilot and aircraft mechanic in the Navy. There are many names for such instances of luck and happenstance: fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it. The word that happens to come to my mind is serendipity.

Caption contest #7

Welcome to our latest Caption Contest at Air Facts, where we post a photo and call on our very talented readers to provide a caption for that photo. Check out our most recent one below and if an amusing or clever caption comes to mind, just post it as a comment.
Bush pilot Alaska

Bush flying at its worst: a Super Cub caught in a storm

The wind was getting stronger, the ceiling was dropping, I still had a long way to go and I didn’t see anywhere below me that looked like a great place to spend the night. The thought of being stuck in rush hour traffic somewhere didn’t sound too bad right now.

Friday Photo: Alaska solo cross-country

Cross-countries are a little different in Alaska, as Herbert Mann proves in this photo. He flew across the Turnagain Arm, then used the Anchorage East Side Corridor to fly between Anchorage and the Chugiak Mountains on the east all the way to Palmer. He then departed Palmer behind a DC-3 and landed on the dirt strip at Willow before coming home to Soldotna. He says, "Dreams do come true if we work hard enough."
Prop strike Sonex

A prop strike, a little adventure and some lessons learned

I made a perfect wheel landing and rolled to the crossing runway 24, where I was told to take a left turn on the crossing runway to taxi to parking. The winds were now 70 degrees off my nose, and I was moving at a slow walking pace. The crosswind was causing the tail wheel to skid, but I was nearly to the parking area. Suddenly I heard a wind gust and the tail lifted into the air until "WHAP!" the prop struck the ground.
Fog around approach lights

Deep dark weather secrets about fog are really no mystery

It’s not accurate to say that Mother Nature keeps secrets. However, it is spot on to say that Mother Nature harbors all manner of surprises for pilots who fly on without making an effort to develop some personal weather wisdom. One key is in understanding that what you see and feel is what you get, regardless of what is forecast.
Clouds above airport tower

Stumbling into IMC without a plan

I believe this is where things go bad for well-trained pilots. It’s not that we can’t improvise and come up with new plans, but when we're a little lost and our original plan isn’t working out, we need a few moments to compose a new one. I was in the pattern in IMC, trying to descend well below pattern altitude to get below the scattered clouds while trying to do what I told the tower I would be doing - and also not get in trouble with ATC.

Friday Photo: grass strip fun

Darin Moody and Paul Leadabrand were doing some backcountry flight training in a Kitfox when this photo was taken. As they traded seats on the grass runway at Big Creek airstrip, Paul writes, "Blue jeans, blue sky, and training with your wing man - what could make a better weekend outing?" Not much, we would say.
CFI with student in Cessna

What I learned about instructors during private pilot training

The greatest weakness a student pilot has is that they lack the pilot skills to judge the quality of the super pilot assigned to be their instructor. Before first solo, the new student has all instructors on a throne. The CFI is god-like, certified by the government and endowed with such superior skills that they can “teach ME to fly.”
Turbulence map

3 questions to ask about weather reports

When you consider the big picture, you're really creating a weather hypothesis - an overarching narrative that ties together the various weather reports. Not all weather reports are developed the same way, and not all deserve equal attention. Here are three questions to consider when comparing different weather products.
Oil on airplane cowl

A sticky situation: flying blind in a vintage airplane

Seconds after the smoke started, I was looking out the windshield and could see smoke coming from around the propeller and all of a sudden: Whoosh! The windshield was completely covered with brown oil, and I could see nothing out of it. I shut off the engine with the mag switch and pointed the nose down steeply. I wanted to get the airplane on the ground now!

Friday Photo: Florida Keys sunset

David Compo had a dinner scheduled near his hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, but wisely changed plans. Since he had flown down from Michigan in his Comanche, he decided to take another builder and fly to Key West for dinner on Duvall Street. Once he got past the southern tip of the mainland he climbed to 1,000, the sun started setting and David's brother shot this beautiful photo.
Author with grandfather

Flying my grandfather for his 90th birthday

Every flight is exhilarating, but not every flight will be logged as a lifelong memory. This was one of those flights I will remember forever. Grandma nervously hugged us goodbye as Grandpa, Dad, and I squeezed into the compact Skyhawk.
Comanche 260

3 flying mistakes – and the lessons I learned

Learning from others’ mistakes is more conducive to successful flying than creating your own. Here are three lessons I learned on three different flights, but only because I made some mistakes. Hopefully you can learn from them and avoid making them yourself!

Video tip: your deceptive flying mind

We celebrate the great stick and rudder pilots of aviation history, but in reality, flying is mostly a mental game. Sometimes it can even feel like your mind is working against you in the cockpit. In this month's video tip, learn about four mental traps that can cause anxiety and even an accident if you're not careful.