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.

Friday Photo: Ercoupe sunset

After 35 years as a professional pilot (Boeing 747s on down), I now fly a Light Sport-qualified Ercoupe 415-C. It is a fantastic airplane, and “low and slow” is great after so many years of high and fast. The view from, the speed of, and the pleasure of flying this “no-purpose-but-to-enjoy-it” airplane are all just what I was looking for at this end of my career.
ICON A5 in flight

Debate: what’s going on at ICON?

ICON Aircraft's self-proclaimed mission is to "create products that not only deliver great functional benefit but also deeply inspire us on an emotional level." But inspiration isn't the word that comes to mind right now for many ICON position-holders. As the A5 finally gets close to being delivered to pilots, the company's purchase agreement has raised a number of questions.
T-37 in flight

How do you report something that’s physically impossible?

It was required that we do a project to evaluate dives and recoveries of the T-37 Air Force trainer, though I was not then, and am still not, sure how that was to be utilized in the training curriculum. We decided to do the two ingredients separately in programmed, and recorded, flight testing – dives at various angles, and pullouts at various g's – and then recombine them in various combinations analytically.
Flight Design C4

Why you should care about the new Part 23 proposal

There has been a lot of talk lately (perhaps too much?) about aviation issues in Washington: Air Traffic Control privatization, the third class medical, and user fees to name just three. Somewhat obscured by these Capitol Hill battles is a more complicated but also arguably more important legislative issue: aircraft certification reform.

Friday Photo: Stearman over the Salton Sea

There's nothing like the yellow fabric of a Stearman to evoke the golden age of aviation. This week's beautiful Friday Photo shows that view, with the unique Salton Sea in California just beyond the wingtip.

Flying to Chicago for an important mission

Where to go when perfect early September weather presents itself on a Sunday and there are no commitments to either the weekday boss who pays the bills or the boss at home who spends the paycheck? It used to be that one could fly to the grand metropolis known as The Windy City and land at an airport conveniently located right on the downtown lakeshore, but as we all know, Meigs Field is no longer the pilot’s gateway to Chicago.