Mobile airport

The education of a young professional

I kept the flashlight dancing around the panel… attitude, direction, attitude, altimeter, attitude, airspeed and repeat… with an occasional sweep of the left wing leading edge checking for ice. It was dark and the air was rough inside the cloud. I was in a tough spot this time for sure.

Friday Photo: sunshine after the cold front

John Gill spent a solid day flying in IMC and shooting approaches for a recent Angel Flight. Closer to home, has was rewarded with this view of the late afternoon sun shining through gaps in the clouds, illuminating other cloud layers below. As he says, it was "God's paintbrush giving a ray of hope after a hard day."
O-2 Skymaster

Put down the Budweiser – a Vietnam flying story

I pulled up one of the chairs, recalling the uneventful mission, filling out the paperwork after taking three quick chugs of beer. Soon, I would be over at the O Club, catching up on all the news from my fellow pilots there, whether they be F-4 drivers or Electric Goon (EC-47) ones. Then... CRACKLE – CRACKLE. The little speakers at the radio rack announced an incoming call.
Doolittle crew by airplane

The pilot brotherhood – only as good as your next action

I think we get carried away with this brotherhood talk. Sure, pilots can be accepting and caring folks, and the common bond of aviation often does bring wildly different people together. That hardly means such behavior is guaranteed, though. Pilots are still human beings who often bring their own powerful emotions, biases and agendas to any situation.

A pilot in command abdication

It was a dark and clear winter night, somewhere between 1979 and 1980. I walked up to the Piper Archer with my three other buddies, in full fighter pilot swag, full of myself and the false confidence only a 20-year old can have. I had earned my Private in just 54 hours and now, with a whole 61 hours logged, I was flying my buddies to the Playboy Club Resort at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Friday Photo: how many souls on board?

They don't get much better than this Friday Photo. Pilot Chuck Tippett took his first selfie on the way to the beach with his two grandsons and the family dog. A 45-minute flight certainly beats a two hour drive, and the memories will last a lifetime. Rarely has the cockpit of a J-3 Cub looked better.
Glider in field

A glider flyer named Skysailor finds the earth

The day inevitably arrives. The weather is nice, there are cumulus clouds, soaring birds, other sailplanes are climbing, and I am beyond a final glide to the airfield. Suddenly, I’m not finding lift anymore, the trusty 1-26 is sinking as my heart rate is climbing. I’ve been taught off field landings, I have helped bring gliders back from off landings, and I’m about to have an off field landing.
Memorial Day cemetery

A Memorial Day salute – please join in

I usually write about private aviation but this starts out with an accident involving a military airplane – a long time ago... On November 22, 1952 a USAF C-124 crashed into Colony Glacier on Mount Garrett, 40 miles east of Anchorage, Alaska, where the airplane was supposed to land. The weather was awful and a distress call was received by a Northwest Orient passenger flight.
Viscount

Emergency formation flying with a Viscount

We called ATC and advised that we were not sure of our altitude or speed and declared PAN PAN. We then read up the drills in the QRH and the DC-9 manual but they had no effect on the instruments so we realized we had a serious problem. How to get safely down when the weather was poor and even our alternate in North Dakota had solid overcast?

Friday Photo: sunset on a first flight lesson

Sunsets are always better from the cockpit, and a thin overcast makes them a little more interesting. Daniel McPartland got to see one of these, but it was even more special because he was on his first flight lesson. Taking in the scenery while sitting in the left seat for the first time is this week's Friday Photo.

What every VFR pilot needs to know about arriving IFR traffic

VFR pilots operate in the same airspace as commercial IFR jet aircraft without having to ever hit the push-to-talk button. Most of the time things go just fine and the two operate without running into each other. Not having a requirement to talk to anyone doesn’t alleviate your responsibility as a small airplane driver to understand the airspace around you, though.
Pilot talking on radio in Cessna

5 things every VFR pilot should say

Radio communication is always one of the hardest things to learn for many pilots. It actually seems to make flying harder sometimes: you’re already busy flying the airplane when ATC gives you a call so fast all you catch is your tail number. Other pilots in CTAF areas can make it even worse. Let me give you the top five things I’ve learned to say over the years that have made flying easier and safer.
Takeoff by Cessna

Takeoff: the riskiest three minutes

There has been a rash of takeoff accidents featured in the news. That cabin-class Cessna hitting the trees in Alabama was dramatic, as was the footage of the Beech Duchess in a yard in Florida. There have been a lot others and when I read of these I think about how unforgiving airplanes can be if you fly away without the old ducks all in a row.

Friday Photo: San Francisco moonrise

San Francisco Bay is a unique place to fly, and Paul De Zan captures a lot of the activity in this week's Friday Photo. From the dark water to the shining city lights to the airliners landing at SFO, it's all visible from the cockpit of a Cessna 172. Off in the distance, a warm moon rises from the horizon.
Cub on floats

My floatplane rating – not easy, but worth it

I arrived at the seaplane base bright and early to find that I was to be the only student. You wouldn’t guess it from the Orlando traffic, but it was something of an off-season, at least with regard to people looking for floatplane ratings.
decision right and wrong

To go or not to go? That is the (wrong) question

We falsely view most aviation decisions as binary. The language of decision-making subtly reinforces this, with exhortations to "keep it simple" or "be confident." What we end up with is a hopelessly unrealistic set of answers: yes or no, black or white. We should know better. Flying is all about subtle clues, 50/50 decisions and shades of gray.
David Flynn by Cessna

Where is the “airport community?”

I was trying to find ways to get involved at the local airport – but found it much more challenging than I had hoped. I was willing to wash planes, clean hangars, or just about anything else if it meant I got to hang around the airport and meet some people, but even finding pilots to do so with was difficult. I couldn’t find any form of connection or community between the pilots at this airport.

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!