Friday Photo: blue Bahamas water

The first time I flew to the Bahamas was in the spring of 1974 in a 1952 Piper TriPacer. On this flight, we're in our Aerostar following the magenta line - precisely knowing our position, ground speed, ETA, etc. The technology may have changed, but the beauty of the islands has not.

Certifying pilots: the new Airman Certification Standards

The FAA is gearing up to start replacing the Practical Test Standards – the FAA’s checkride guidance for applicants, instructors, and designated pilot examiners (DPEs). The PTS has been the “Cliff Notes-to-the-Checkride” for years. Why in the world would the FAA mess with a good thing?
Breezy in flight

A new kind of open cockpit – first flight in a Breezy

A home at Highcrest airport provides abundant opportunities to pilot a wide variety of flying machines, and my first flight in a Breezy was here... it is also one I am not likely to forget!
Helipad in rain forest

Helicopter techniques – (not) for dummies

Some time after having served as a bush pilot and mechanic in the tropical rain forests of Borneo as well as in the high mountain regions of Papua – Irian Jaya for a few years, I was asked to present a lecture to a symposium of the Christian Pilots Association CPV in Germany, to broach the issue of advantages and limitations of helicopter operations in mission aviation.

Friday Photo: Mt. Bachelor, Oregon

Mt. Bachelor, a popular ski resort in Oregon, makes for a beautiful subject in this week's Friday Photo. Student pilot John Belnap snapped this photo of the snow-covered peak from a Cessna 172 as he flew to Bend with friend and fellow pilot Jonathan Jenson.
Arkansas River

Cross-country at 75mph – a Champ earns her name

I was sitting in my 1946 Aeronca Champ at the edge of the runway at Chambers County-Winnie Stowell Airport, just outside the town of Winnie, Texas. I was only about 40 miles from my home airport at La Porte, Texas, on the final leg of a nearly 1800-mile round trip from Texas to Kentucky.
Quail Commander

Dead reckon: Georgia to Ecuador in a crop duster

When a pilot thinks about some of the flights he flew during the early years of a piloting career, one can’t help thinking, “What was I thinking back then?” The event I am referring to took place in February 1970, when I flew a new crop duster from the factory in Georgia to the buyer, a farmer in Ecuador.
Aero Friedrichshafen show

General aviation in Europe is both inspiring and frightening

For a crass American, AERO is a very civilized show, held in a beautiful convention center with great coffee and lively beer gardens. Oshkosh this isn't. Beyond these mundane differences, though, the show offers a fascinating lesson for US pilots. If all you've heard is how awful things are for private pilots in Europe, let me offer a more complete - although not entirely rosy - portrait.

Friday Photo: Sierra Nevada mountains at sunrise

The early bird gets the worm, but he also gets the beautiful sunrise. Pilot John Krikorian shares this week's Friday Photo, with the sun peeking out from behind a few clouds over the Sierra Nevada mountains. He was on a trip in a Cessna 182 to Mexico to support the Flying Doctors of Mercy.
Citation factory line

Airplane certification: be careful what you wish for…

What most pilots don’t realize is that certifying that exciting new design is but a small part of the picture. There’s financing, engineering, production and sales and, in the end, profit. If the latter isn’t possible all the rest can be for naught. This is why I, for one, take the proposed rewrite of Part 23 certification standards not with a grain, but with a round blue cardboard container of salt.
Confidence thermometer

Why CFIs need to think about confidence more

Who would feel safe flying with someone who did not have an appropriate level of confidence? In my mind, developing a student’s self-confidence should be one of the main jobs of the instructor. During periods where pilots are not actively undergoing flight training, it needs to be something they work on themselves. I can think back to several experiences which taught me this firsthand.

First trip to SUN ‘n FUN

It’s been just over a week since I departed KLAL (Lakeland, Florida) after enjoying four wonderful days at SUN ‘n FUN 2016. This had been the first airshow I have attended, and being what I consider to be a “new pilot” (205 hours, PPL earned just one year ago) it was an amazing experience.

Friday Photo: why we love flying

Take a beautiful airplane and a beautiful vista and you get a special photo. This week's cockpit photo comes from Greg Pepper, who snapped this one on the way home from Dallas in his Cirrus. As he says, it's a great reminder of why pilots love what they do.

Area Forecast replacement – what does it really say?

The old Area Forecast (FA) is going away, and I for one say good riddance. This textual forecast product has plenty of valuable information, but its ALL CAP format is a leftover from a previous era, making it a pain to use. Besides, almost everything in the FA can be found elsewhere these days. Everything, that is, except cloud top forecasts.
Scud running

The most inherently dangerous of all flying techniques

It’s unwise, it’s in contravention of standing FARs, and it is - without argument - the most inherently dangerous of all flying techniques. It puts crop dusting, aerobatics, and banner towing up in the bleachers. It’s far more dangerous than flying as a salmon spotter for the Alaska fishing industry. Except for herring spotting, that is, which is in a category of its own.
Light gun in tower

Flying it home for the first time

A beautiful October afternoon in 1976 at El Mirage Field, California, saw my daughter and me taking off in our newly-bought old airplane en route to Palo Alto Airport (PAO). We were beyond excited and distracted, so I didn’t recognize clues that we were bound for more excitement than expected. Put another way, this was to become an unfunny, unsafe, head-up-and-locked comedy of errors.

Friday Photo: small New Jersey airport

It was one of those beautiful afternoons in December when the sky was so clear, crisp and my workday was cut short by my longing to fly. Being a new pilot, every time I fire up the plane I get goosebumps. The excitement of not knowing what to expect keeps me going further, like a child sneaking out of his yard for a look around. This afternoon I decided to go north, not really having an absolute destination but just enjoying the view of the New Jersey landscape.
Twin throttle quadrant

Will I ever be ready for the checkride?

As I was being vectored for an instrument approach into Thomaston, Georgia, the airplane suddenly lurched to the right. An engine had failed, as I'd suspected it might. I was rusty on my instrument flying skills, but I was flying only by reference to instruments. I wondered what I'd gotten myself into.
Runway lights at night

How safe are you?

Before I obtained an instrument rating and began using IFR charts, I, too, relied primarily on visual cues; I never paid a lot of attention to actual geodetic elevations of obstacles and terrain. This type of “feel-as-you-go” operation is fine in good, daytime visibility. But in darkness or reduced visibilities, it can quickly lead to disaster. Simply said, when the visibility goes down, you need a better plan.

5 things every IFR pilot needs to say

Single Pilot IFR is one of the most dangerous types of flying in general aviation, because it requires high workload and multitasking. The human brain is always more effective when it can focus on one thing; that one thing should be flying the airplane. Over the years I’ve found five key phrases that, when told to ATC, reduce workload and make IFR much easier.