Friday Photo: fall in Oregon

The Pacific Northwest serves up some beautiful views year-round, but fall is a particularly photogenic season. Steve Splonskowski shows off one of these views in this Friday Photo, with Wilamette Falls in the foreground and Mount Hood in the background. It's the perfect vista to enjoy from a Taylorcraft.
OV-10

Close encounters of the worst kind

I watched as he released his first two bombs and began his pullout. However, I noticed he was coming uphill directly at me and was closing fast (probably 450+ knots). I also quickly figured out he was going to run into me! I loudly asked, “Lead, you got the FAC in sight?”
Gray clouds

Rollicking in the clouds

We were barely in the clouds for a minute and the aircraft was in a 20-degree bank. I pointed it out and he corrected it, only to lose the altitude and then moments later executed the opposite. That “heavy left hand” was going to exact its commission. The aircraft was back in a left 30-degree bank before you could say, “Hey, watch it!” and the tortured climb rate became a free-wheeling descent rate. The altimeter was having quite the day.

Go with the flow—a day trip to Mackinac Island with a minor hiccup

In August of 2015, I had the opportunity to purchase a beautiful 1965 Cessna 182H Skylane and fulfill my dream of ownership, which I'd had since I earned my PPL in 1972. I informed my wife that our Skylane might not be as reliable as the airlines, and she should be prepared for the unexpected and just go with the flow.
Garmin Pilot weather screen

The datalink weather revolution: safer and less stressful flights

I put the iPad down after a few minutes and said to the other pilot flying with me, “we’ll just keep going and see how that line develops when we get closer.” I suspect that’s a common phrase for many Air Facts readers who fly cross countries—and indeed, this was just another day at the office—but that doesn’t make it any less miraculous. Quite simply, datalink weather has changed how we fly.

Friday Photo: a patchwork quilt

While enjoying his first flight after the lifting of COVID restrictions, Australian pilot Neil Sidwell took this photo from his ICP Savannah. As he says, the view was full of color: "Yellow canola, brown ploughed fields, green grass, and dark green wooded hills in the background melding into a patchwork quilt."
Turn from cockpit

Dad, can I fly the plane?

The day was clear and the winds were calm—a perfect day for Mike and me to go flying in my Cessna 152. There was one problem: I forgot the booster seat for then 8-year-old Mike. So there he was in the right seat, not able to see over the control panel and barely able to see out his window. It didn’t seem to matter much to him; he was just enjoying a Saturday morning with his dad at 2,500 feet.
Super Cub landing

Stabilized approaches: the last six inches is all that counts

There are groups of pilots who seldom use a stabilized approach because the variables of most of their landings make that difficult, and their normal landing is to use a flexible approach with almost everything varying except the final contact with the ground. A stabilized approach is best for normal flying but is a luxury that some pilots don’t have.
ForeFlight overview

Go or No Go: VFR ahead of a cold front

It's Monday morning, and that means it's time for work. This week that means (hopefully) a one hour and ten minute flight in your Cessna 172, from your home in Greenville, South Carolina (GSP), to your satellite office location in Danville, Virginia (DAN). Read the weather briefing below and then decide whether it's a go or a no go.
Logbook entries

The only flight time that counts

Local environments produce interesting flying hours, especially if other pilots are not likely to obtain the “correct” time a local pilot may enjoy. I was informed that I could never obtain true pilot-hood until I had logged the following.

Friday Photo: Pacer parked at 8432 ft. MSL

The Piper Pacer isn't known as a high performance, high altitude airplane, but Santiago Arbelaez didn't let that stop him. In this Friday Photo he shows his 1954 PA-22 parked at Las Acacias, Colombia, with a field elevation over 8000 feet. Not a bad place to stop while you tour the Andes.
N14745

Owning and flying Bellanca Vikings over the years

My logbook is probably somewhat unique among private pilots in that 90% of my time is in an airplane that isn’t seen at many airports: the Bellanca Viking. I had no real intention of that happening, but it did. Yes, we were naïve. The guy was a good salesman, and we didn’t fully know all the things that should be done before buying an airplane, but it did turn out to be a reasonably good buy in the long run.
Max Conrad by airplane

From the archives: long distance pilot Max Conrad

In this trip through the archives, we're republishing an article from the November 1965 edition of Air Facts. Here, regular contributor Neil Armstrong profiles "the Maestro of Flight—Max Conrad." If the name sounds familiar it's because he set numerous flying records in the 1950s and 1960s, most of them in general aviation airplanes. 
HUD

Flying perpetual VFR—PFDs, HUDs, and conformal displays

The key is that with a full conformal display cockpit we are flying as though we are looking out the window in clear skies while still seeing the most precise flight guidance available. Are you flying instruments, visual, or both? Really both. And that’s the best of all worlds.

Friday Photo: balloons at 9 o’clock

Traffic is hard to spot sometimes, but not when it's a hot-air balloon. German pilot Alexander Steinhorst shares exactly that view in this Friday Photo, with two large balloons off the left wing of his Aquila A211. It was obviously a great evening to fly—for airplanes and balloons alike.
W&B form

Flying loaded: what could possibly go wrong?

I knew we were very heavy and would need much more runway than usual to take off, but was really surprised when the nose lifted off before we were even at 40 knots. We were gaining speed slowly, but it needed a lot more nose down trim, and finally at around 110 knots airspeed we lifted off the runway, at the exact moment I ran out of forward trim.
Map of route

Airplane vs. automobile: commuting to work by air

Commuting to work by automobile is a time-honored ritual for many Americans. Most airplane owners dream of commuting by air if the opportunity would only present itself. A decade ago, that possibility became a reality for me.
Handshake

Finding our fathers

Knowing ourselves is a task for a lifetime. Knowing our forebears is a great help. I am under no illusion that “the old is good, the oldest is best.” That conceit seems unavoidable, revealed in the stories of Noah and his ancestors. We hear it in the sobriquet given to our parents, “the Greatest Generation.” Our wiser self knows it’s not always the case. We still need to know where we came from.
Reno airplanes

Friday Photo: lenticular clouds at Reno

Sometimes the best place to experience the power of Mother Nature is on the ground. That's what George Catalano shares in this Friday Photo, as some beautiful but intimidating lenticular clouds tower over the 2021 Reno Air Races. All the races were cancelled this day, and the clouds suggest why: high winds and rough rides.
HUD labels

When the magic dies: flying with and without HUDs

Sometimes the FM dies. The GPS goes on vacation, the HUD goes to sleep, the INS wanders off to a continent other than the one on which you are currently operating, or your radar takes a smoke-break. In those instances, we Viper drivers were left with what we called an iron sight, which is akin to the fixed, lighted reticle WWII pilots used to aim their weapons.