Friday Photo: Grand Canyon from a Cherokee

We flew direct to the Grand Canyon to fly northbound on the "Zuni Point Corridor" (depicted on the Grand Canyon National Park Special Flight Rules Area chart). We then turned back southbound to land at Valle (40G) just south of the Grand Canyon airport (GCN) to stop for fuel and some friendly conversation. The views of the Grand Canyon were spectacular. It's truly one of those awe-inspiring moments that you will never forget.
Vampire jet fighter

The day I learned I’d never be a fighter pilot

AS FIGHTER PILOT. NOT REQUIRED STANDARD. Sixty four years after that assessment was penned into my pilot’s log book by the CFI of No. 2 Operational Training Unit at RAAF Base Williamtown, I still have a twinge of shame and regret.
Oil on windshield

Ice, turbulence and oil – oh my!

It was a rough flight. One of those flights where you think to yourself, I should have taken up boating. It started as a routine mountain departure. Typical go now in the 30-minute window between snow, sunshine, and the rapidly approaching rain clouds. After clearing mountainous terrain, I picked up my instrument clearance and looked at the broken cumulus build ups in front of me. Be a good chance to use my new Avidyne IFD440 in some real IFR I thought. And then the fun began...
Eye exam

Seeing and flying: how good is good enough?

Despite the requirement for a medical, we have been self-certifying all along once leaving the AME’s office. Do I feel well enough to fly? You bet. Have at it. To me, vision was always the toughest question. How you feel is obvious, vision is not, and the slow deterioration in what you see as you age is as insidious as it is certain.

Friday Photo: Pueblo Bonito

Lauren McGavran finally achieved a lifelong dream when she earned her Sport Pilot license. Taking advantage of this, she took an old friend (and fellow new pilot) along for a flight in a Remos GX. The two friends flew over the iconic Pueblo Bonito in the Chaco Culture National Historic Park of New Mexico, where she snapped this photo.
RVs in formation

Learning formation flying – hard work, but worth it

About a year after buying an already-built Van’s RV-6 and spending a very hot July earning a tailwheel endorsement, I thought I knew the airplane well enough to attend a formation flying clinic being hosted by the Ohio Valley RVators at the not-too-distant Parkersburg, West Virginia, airport. As interesting as it sounded, the very idea of it caused me quite a bit of stress.
Platteville airport

My first IFR approach to minimums happened in clear skies

The closer we got to the airport the lower the sun was on the horizon and the longer the shadows became. The haze was really getting thick and hanging close to the ground. It seemed the more we strained, the less we could see. We knew the airport was right out there somewhere.

Introducing the Air Facts Caption Contest

Today we launch a new monthly feature in Air Facts – our Caption Contest. Once a month, we’ll post a photo and call on our very talented readers to provide a caption for that photo. Check out our first one below and if an amusing or clever caption comes to mind, just post it as a comment. We want everyone to be able to enjoy all the entries, not just us.
Tom Hanks as Sully

Sully and the impossible turn

Let’s cut right to the chase – Sully is a movie that any pilot, and especially an airline pilot, can watch without being mortified by technical and artistic errors on the part of the filmmakers. The portions of the movie that depict the flight and the water landing are done to near perfection. Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart not only play the role of airline pilots superbly, but they even manage to look a good deal like the originals.

Friday Photo: Tennessee sunset

The sunsets always look best after some time in IMC. That's what Rick and Karen Mills saw from their 1949 Ryan Navion, as they flew home to Louisville, Kentucky. The setting sun over Central Tennessee made for the perfect ending to a beautiful day.
iPad in cockpit

What controversy? 5 debates new pilots don’t understand

Pilots love a good debate. This may be the only thing that isn't controversial in aviation. Enthusiasm for debates doesn't necessarily make aviation unique; after all, sports fans are famous for their spirited arguments too. What is different is our need to debate the same issues, year after year, sometimes decades after the facts are settled. Two recent examples are particularly long-running - to the point of being frustrating.
Thunderstorm at night

Quality miles: the best route isn’t always the shortest

As we crossed into Michigan, the satellite downlink picture beyond Lake Huron showed an irregular line of large thunderstorms stretching on a 35 degree angle from right to left across our path. I had been warned about scattered thunderstorms across Ontario leaving Green Bay but this looked more than scattered and I could not tell if there was a gap at least 50 miles wide for us to go through.
Boeing 727

Why a 10 mile flight in a 727 took 30 minutes – or 4

A flight from LGA to JFK was normally nowhere near as short as you might think. Although the direct distance between the two airports is less than 10 miles, the flight itself often involved a tour of Long Island nearly out to Montauk to fit into the arrival pattern at JFK. It was not uncommon for the off-to-on time of this ferry flight to exceed 30 minutes.

Friday Photo: storm over the Everglades

Most pilots can think of at least one experience that made them appreciate the power of Mother Nature. For Joel Graham, it was this picture, captured from his Piper Arrow on the way to the Florida Keys. It shows towering storms over the Everglades, and "has a way of reminding you how small you and your airplane really are."
Meigs airport

Meigs saves the day: flying to my wedding during the blizzard of 1967

"It’s snowing in Chicago and Indiana, and there won’t be any open roads or airline flights to Chicago until next week" – a prediction which turned out to be absolutely correct. This announcement tended to make it seem somewhat difficult for the groom to get to the suburban Chicago wedding by Saturday night – two days later.
Aztec on one engine

Double trouble: have twins suddenly turned deadly?

In the course of a few days, two old piston twins, a Model B55 Baron and a Piper Navajo, crashed, killing six in each case. My main question about the recent accidents was whether or not they were related to the failure of one engine and the resulting asymmetric thrust.
ILS approach at night

Head games: getting IFR current with a big trip

After a few more minutes of discussing the round dials and radios, my wife began to ask about the clouds in front of us. I did my best to be nonchalant about the approaching wall of smooth, white clouds, but in the back of my mind was the thought that this was the first time in over 10 years that I would be in actual “hard” IFR. I could feel that my smile lacked some sincerity when I joked about the weather.

Friday Photo: Monday over the rainbow

Wow. That's about the only reaction that seems appropriate after seeing this week's Friday Photo. Ethan Levi's wife snapped this photo of a beautiful rainbow just off the wing of their Mooney as they were vectored for the ILS 13R approach into Hillsboro, Oregon. Hopefully good weather and light winds were at the end of this rainbow.

Stayin alive – 16 favorite aviation quotes

Sometimes a simple phrase can sum up the essence of flying better than a chapter in a textbook. Here, experienced pilot Dan Littmann shares 16 of his favorite aviation quotes. From Wolfgang Langewiesche to Bob Hoover, well-known pilots share words that are funny but lessons that are serious. Read his list, then add your own.

Go or No Go: afternoon buildups

The goal today is to get to Tallahassee, Florida, so you can be at a meeting first thing tomorrow morning. On paper, this is an ideal trip for you and your Piper Arrow. It should take just over an hour and a half, and a colleague will be waiting to pick you up in Florida. Of course the only question now is the weather. Let's look at what your iPad has to say, then decide whether it's a go or a no go.