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Sporty’s Academy Blog

2025 Richard Collins Writing Prize Winner: Cruising Through the Soaring Blues

powered parachute

Friday Photo: Fusion Over Mystic Bluffs

Airshows and Fighter Jet Demos

A Life in Aviation: Building a Legacy Through Books and Artifacts

Pilot’s Bucket List: 11 Must-Do Adventures After Earning Your License

Managing Your Speed Near the Airport

In Defense of the Paper Nav Log

JACKSON HOLE AIRPORT

Friday Photo: The Tetons From Jackson Hole Airport (KJAC)

Teaching International Student Pilots

Why Crash Videos and Social Media Don’t Mix

I Am UNSAFE Checklist—Lessons Learned on a Fateful Night

A Great Flying Experience on the Ground

Flying “Low VFR” to the Indy 500

sea of lennies

Friday Photo: Sea of Lennies

Checking The Checklist Checks

No Second Chances—An IFR Approach Scenario

The Arrogant Pilot

Airline Pilots Are the Most Scrutinized Profession

Who is the pilot in command of your aircraft?

clouds

Friday Photo: Clouds

Six Brave Souls

You Need to Do What at Five Thousand Feet? Another Adventure in Seaplane Flying

Final Thoughts on the Base to Final Turn

My Experience in the Naval Aviation Cadet (NAVCAD) Program

The NTSB Got It Wrong on TWA Flight 841

aerobatic practice

Friday Photo: Practice

How I failed my IFR Practical Test Twice

A Night Flying Experience I’ll Never Forget

Ask Mr. Pilot

Announcing the 2025 Richard Collins Writing Prize for Young Pilots

The pros and the cons: Cirrus SR22

douglas a-4 skyhawk

Friday Photo: A-4 from a TA-4

Understanding TEC routes in busy IFR airspace — Advanced IFR, by Pilot Workshops

An Icy Saab Story

A Case of Stay-Here-Itis

Flying a Skylane From Canada to Belize

favorite photos 2024

Favorite Friday Photos of 2024

Air Facts Top Articles of 2024

From the Archive: Operation Santa Claus

High-Tech One Upmanship

gear up landing

Do Crash Videos Make Us Safer Pilots?

lower manhattan

Friday Photo: Lower Manhattan on Halloween

Anticipation

Checkrides gone wrong: rope-a-dope

Christmas reading list: 24 books for pilots to read in 2024

Checking off a bucket list item

Flying with the Old Breed—Max Karant’s Twin Comanche

golden gate bridge

Friday Photo: Afternoon Stratus Enveloping the Golden Gate Bridge

I Learned About Flying from Him

Air Facts IFR Challenge

How and Why I Became a Military Writer

Don’t Get Stuck—Avoiding Breakdowns and Delays

Another reason to fly—Young Eagles

ozark sunset

Friday Photo: Sunset Over the Ozarks

The Fine Art of the Debrief

Weather flying means learning to read clouds

Air Facts Video Classic—single-pilot IFR departures

Freedom to the Form

Corsair V8

The Corsair C172-V8 Experiment Update #3—Reader’s Suggestions

Friday Photo: Texas Skies on a Fun Fuel Run

CFI with student

Flying with the Old Breed—Why’d You Do That?

Carburetor Icing and My Taylorcraft Accident

cirrus sr-22

Close, but no Cigar

atlas air b767

Panic, and How To Not

Sounds you NEVER want to hear

rnav approach

Friday Photo: RNAV Approach at Cumberland Regional Airport

The Flying Sport

turbulent clouds

Turbulence

VFR Challenge from Pilot Workshops—A Fuel’s Errand

cub enroute

An A-Maze-ing Day of Flying!

t-34

Navy primary flight training—the instructor had it coming

cape cod sunset

Friday Photo: Sunset at Cape Cod Gateway Airport

Interactive Exercise: Test Your Knowledge of RNAV Approach Charts

wing

The Captain is Lying and We can Prove It

172rg

Multiple Cessna 172RGs made me a better pilot

Teardrop diagram

What’s wrong with the teardrop pattern entry

A Big Surprise from an FAA Inspector

reno air races

Friday Photo: Reno Air Races 2023

dee

I’m still scared of flying

From the archive: A Pleasant Time

What NTSB Reports Say About Impossible Turns and AOA (Part II)

Wright Flyer

Aviation at the leading edge of science

What NTSB Reports Say About Impossible Turns and AOA (Part I)

ov-10 bronco

Friday Photo: Wild Broncos Over Laos

Extend downwind for an arriving flight of two

Landing

My mid-flight medical emergency

enroute

Soaring Over the Rainbow Nation: A Journey as a South African Pilot

united b757

The day I had to make a short field landing in a B757

Cessna 172

What matters for VFR proficiency: better landings

Friday photo: upside down smiles over Arkansas

wing

A fun fuel run

Lancair

Icing, the face of God and illusions

commander en route

Flying to Sun ‘n Fun 2024

cruise flight

Cruise Checklist, Complete?

beech 18

Fate is STILL the hunter

seaplane on beach

Friday photo: If pigs could fly

IFR Insights with Spencer Suderman: Procedure Turn and RNAV Circling Approach

Piper Warrior

Budget Buys and Early Bye-Bye’s

new england coast

My first and last flying road trip

CIRRUS OVER SOUTH AFRICA

Turbulence and Triumph: Lessons learned about flying (and about life)

pa-32

Who needs pre-buy inspections?

Friday Photo: forest fire off the wing

New Cessna 172

So maybe there was a real purpose in flying that day

Mechanic helping kid

Passing the torch

SGS 1-26

Soaring and the Aviation Safety Reporting System

Your passengers may not always enjoy flying

Windsock

Wind is More than a Number

cuban eight

Friday photo: half cuban eight

V-tail Bonanza

Burning Man for Builders

Challenges in Vietnam

Airplane off runway

Survival gear after the crash…hmm

Citabria on grass runway

The time when I almost landed short

Our Overton Window

steep turn

Friday photo: knocking off the rust in the practice area

Choosing the best IFR route — Advanced IFR, by PilotWorkshops

PC-12 crash track

Ignore the YouTube crash detectives—it’s usually pilot error

A Newbie CFI, Disco Fever, and My Inner Voice

cowling

How stress and anxiety affect pilots

Legend Cub

The Last Pilot

niagara falls

Friday photo: Niagara Falls for the solar eclipse

dc 10

Uncle Joe’s Last Flight

mooney

Let George do it!

Living the dream

c-47

A pilot’s path begins with a father’s influence

waco

A Long Buried Story Resurfaces

two boeings

Friday photo: two Boeings

aero commander

From the archive: round trip to Europe in an Aero Commander

diamond da40

It’s Time To Get High

airplane in grass

Centerline, centerline, centerline

A dead stick landing and a chance encouter with Hal Shevers

md-11

One of the last in the air on 9/11

piper arrow

Friday photo: When I grow up, I want to be…

Flight instruction

Why learning to fly can be good for your mental health

The “C” in PIC

approach fog

Danger lurks in circling approaches

Glider tow

Glider Towing – How do I get out of This Mess

152 landing

She’s Down – Helping a Cessna in Distress

otto pilot

Friday photo: DC-6 “autopilot”

Smith

Learning to fly after 55

mooney on ramp

My Near Death Experience

approach fog

IFR challenge from Pilot Workshops: What would you do?

What was one of the scariest moments in your life?

Air Force Museum

General Aviation Accessible Aviation Museum Directory

tyndal glacier

Friday photo: flying up the Tyndall Glacier

death valley

Flying Out of Death Valley Alive

Airline pilot hiring by month

What a difference a decade makes: the GA boom in statistics

airplane engine

Aviation shop rat

cessna cardinal

Rubber bands – the reason I quit

Cub nose in sand

Quick land to Quicksand

ships

Friday photo: herding checks in southeast Asia

My First Oshkosh

super cub

Blister Flight – Six Pilots and an Angel

Pilot in Cessna 182

The Zen of IFR

Low approach

Diversity: The Double-Edged Sword of General Aviation

C-123 landing

Drop missions: aerial delivery

ocean city beach

Friday photo: Ocean City, Maryland in the winter

Air Facts video classic: mountain flying

puget sound

SoCal to Alaska – Flying beyond the Comfort Zone

Glacier

Aviate. Navigate. Simulate.

Dassault-Breguet Br.1150 ‘Atlantique’

A hard day’s flight

pilots on flight deck

Cheetah running across Canada

Friday photo: Islands in the Sky

North to Alaska

Pilot logbook

Remembering what flying was like fifty years ago

Take a step back

Becoming an Aviation “YouTuber” Has Made Me a Better Pilot

The art of instrument approaches – 7 tips for proficient flying

Friday photo: Flying north over Puget Sound

Cirrus

From the archives: The real value of an instrument rating

Route overview

Go or No Go: Gulf Coast rain showers

mooney m20

Lessons learned from a sloppy IFR/VFR approach

IFR Challenge – RNAV approach at Tillamook

Glider on tow

As far as the stick would go

Friday photo: The Silver Hawk – 1981 Cessna 172P

Upset

Interactive exercise: Unusual attitude recovery procedures

It’s Not That Complex

Pilot flying in clouds

What matters for IFR proficiency? The answer is quite simple.

Cirrus CFI

Tips for retread pilots

Watch out for TFRs

Friday photo (video): Corsair startup and wing unfold

High Jackers

Best FBOs and my personal minimums

Angle of attack graphic

Angle of attack for dummies

Richard L. Collins

Announcing the 2024 Richard Collins Writing Prize for Young Pilots

The Flagship Phantom

Challenging runway flying the C-123 in Vietnam

dollywood

Friday photo: Dollywood Theme Park, Pigeon Forge, TN

Instructional Inheritance; An Examination of the DNA of Your CFI

Cessna with snow

Air Facts video classic: operating in winter conditions

A soaring surprise for my birthday

Articles from Alex Sack

Flying Functional Check Flights (FCFs)

Pilot’s Discretion Podcast with John Zimmerman – top 10 episodes of 2023

Favorite Friday photos of 2023

Meigs airport

Air Facts top 10 articles of 2023

First Time in Real IMC; A Memorable Flight with Lessons Learned

Runway

GA Airports Suffer from Costly Mismanagement

An accident in my Taylorcraft

Weather overview

Go or No Go: ice before snow

Friday photo: Departure from Gastons Airport (3M0), Lakeview, Arkansas

F-4 Phantom

What it’s like not being home for Christmas

What it takes to catapult off an aircraft carrier

Airplane out side window

From the archives: Richard Collins on collision avoidance

O-2 Skymaster

What Christmas was like far away from family

Always a student—some advice for aspiring professional pilots

Friday photo: Breaking out from a low IFR departure

Two in a row—a chain of mistakes and lessons

airplanes converging

My self-taught Immelmann for collision avoidance

Mooney M20E

Unfamiliarity and distractions nearly result in a gear up

Cessna 150

My first flight 50 years ago

Low approach

Pilots need to be generalists, not specialists

Friday photo: Arrowhead Lake in northern Laos

CFI with student

How That Proverbial Hamburger Could Save You $100, and a Lot More

descent into clouds

As flight instructors we must continue to innovate

Aeronca

Flying during the pandemic and my approach to LAX

Meigs airport

I was at Meigs Field

Taxiing vs. Flying—Which is Harder?

Friday photo: Approach into York, PA (KTHV) Runway 35

An action packed day on the Boeing 727

The friends I do not know

Caught above an overcast layer results in first encounter with IMC

From the archives: Patrolling the Chesapeake Bay by seaplane

Cross-country to T25 in my Sonex

Friday photo: B17 over the Boeing plant

iPad in cockpit

Webinar video: Flying with Datalink Weather

Thunderstorm

Flirting with the tropopause

Lost Over the Mediterranean: A Pilot’s Tale of Lessons Learned

FCM to ABR

Go or No Go: windy weekend escape

The Silent Treatment: Techniques in Learning

Friday photo: flying over the southern Nevada and California border

Never a dull moment at a flight school

A Bad Plan is Better Than No Plan At All

Aviation is the universal language

Bird strikes

The new Helio Courier pilot

Friday photo: fishing from the wing of a Maule

My lake rescue in northern Ontario

Video: flying an instrument approach with synthetic vision on the iPad

VNY

From a rusty pilot: it’s not quite like riding a bicycle

HRRR

TAFs are so last century—here are four new tools to try

Cherokee

A rusty pilot takes to the skies again

Expectation bias and distractions lead to near disaster

The European “28 Day Holiday License”

Friday photo: Middle Lake and Mount Susitna

Mooney

To abort the takeoff or fly

Making peace with a very bad day

Flying the central coast of California

Never again – too much trust in the weather forecast

The Skipper, the eagle, and the really bad decision

Friday photo: Red Rocks of Sedona

Close calls in training prepared me for Gulf War combat

The straight tale of buying my first airplane

Landing gear lights

Landing gear malfunction over the desert offers lesson in resource management

VL-3 airplane

Five changes the new MOSAIC rule could bring to aviation

Friday photo: pyrocumulus cloud in Australia

Route overview

Go or No Go: never judge a forecast by its radar image

Swift

Is your airplane maintenance legal, safe, or neither?

Cessna on final

Hard lessons learned

Runway lights

A night flight I’ll never forget

One hour closer to your first accident

Friday photo: deviating around a thunderstorm

FOD

FAA Foreign Object Debris Program

Witnessing a horrific accident forges a pilot’s journey

Landing gear lights

A Precautionary Landing and The Human Body’s Reaction to Fear

Citation on ramp

Better ramp etiquette is needed

From my love of aviation comes the Freedom Aviation Network

Friday photo: Hollywood sign

Video: Patty Wagstaff on flying aerobatics

Airline takeoff

A runway incident that continues to haunt

Microsoft copilot

What pilots can teach the world about AI

Instrument approach from cockpit

Video: what really matters to ATC in an IFR flight plan

Cub in the grass

My secret forced landing

Friday photo: Dutch flower fields…spring in the Netherlands

Memories of flying the L-1011

Cessna 172

Strong crosswinds offer a lesson in risk management

From the archives: Richard Collins on general aviation safety

Radar map

Go Or No Go: skirting a low

My first solo flights

Friday photo: Lake Tyrrell in northwestern Victoria, Australia

The mishaps that never happened and valuable words of wisdom

My checkout in the Waco

IFR holding pattern interactive scenarios

Upset

My near miss and partial panel recovery

Cessna stall

How Not to Lose Control: What We Can Learn from Colgan 3407

Friday photo: early morning over Sedona, AZ

Reflections from a backseat glider pilot

172 on short final

Don’t damage the pilot brand

Gray clouds

Surviving my solo cross-country flight in South Korea

The U.S. Forest Service Beaver Program in Ely, Minnesota

Cirrus in flight

Cirrus and Bonanzas dominated their eras

Friday photo: The Las Vegas Strip

Pilots are not smarter, they are just better prepared

Pilot in cockpit with instructor

The truth about learning to fly

Airline pilots

What it means to fly like a pro: 12 habits

Wiegman and son in airplane

A mother overcomes her rusty pilot fears to share the joy of flying

Friday photo: Boeing 737 shadow

crashed airplane in grass

Multiple mistakes were too much to overcome

The hidden benefits of learning to fly

Grass runway

Engine Failure Over Kentucky

Mooney M20E

Making a difference – speaking up when it mattered

The Chart Supplement and “Deer, coyotes, and birds on and invof arpt”

Friday photo: turning on a tail

A pilot’s views on 360 photography

Preflight with CFI

Are Your Preflight Inspections Becoming Routine?

The safety window – Raytheon Premier accident analysis

ForeFlight radar map

Go or No Go: spring cold front

Articles from Alex Sack

Sleeping on the job – a lesson in staying alert

Friday photo: last of the frontier DC-3s

Young and reckless

Beginner’s Luck: Winning my first aerobatics competition

Hand-Flying a Category IIIA approach and landing with almost no visibility

Cold weather clarity – staying calm in an emergency

Returning to the air after a suspended medical

Friday photo: Oahu at night from FL380

Fate was on my side – a lesson in scud running

Bell 47 helicopter

Tail rotor failure in the Grand Canyon

Protecting the Pitot-Static System … by making Safety a Habit

From the archives: What it takes to fly the President

Garmin GFC 500 autopilot

Autopilots are underrated

Friday photo: Generations of air travel

Super Cub landing

Which controls which? Throttle/elevator and airspeed/altitude

Idaho backcountry adventure – expectation and the reality

J-3 Cub on floats

No good reason to fly, but this is why I do

Airplane out side window

First solo out of the pattern: an unexpected adventure in risk management

Jumpseat

Press on and get the job done: the aroma of deference

Friday photo: Grand Canyon wrapped in a blanket

Cessna 150

“I’m going to crash!” -helping a pilot in distress

My near fuel emergency

Cirrus in flight

Older and Rusty-er

Mismanaging hands can lead to disaster

Mooney

Descending onto a twin – surviving a near miss

Friday photo: 5,500′ over the mountains north of Asheville

Working down the bucket list: float plane rating—check!

When an Uneventful Flight Turns Eventful

Memories of flights to the הארץ המובטחת (Promised Land)

Pilot in Cessna 182

The joy of IFR

Freak School: learning to fly at OAK in the 1970s

Friday photo: The Guitar Tree

Route overview

Go or no go: Appalachian IFR

An airplane that no longer wanted to fly

Cherokee 140

Reflections and predictions

North to Alaska—a journey to remember

Going down

“Energy Management”—Cliché or Exactitude?

Bahamas water

Friday Photo: beautiful Bahamas water

Loss of control: turning over a new leaf

Maui coast

Flying in paradise: a vacation flight lesson in Maui

Deice pad

Behind the scenes of an airline meltdown

Wing rib damage

Accident report: losing control at 43,000 feet

Friday Photo: shooting the gap

Top 10 articles of 2022 on Air Facts

Bruce Landsberg

Podcast: trends in GA safety, with the NTSB’s Bruce Landsberg

OV-10

Christmas as a forward air controller over Laos

Cherokee takeoff

To flap… or not to flap?

Cessna on grass

The great intermission: a renaissance in general aviation?

Friday Photo: smoke on

Florida beaches

Flying over water, from Nebraska to the Florida Keys

Two kids by Champ

Two teenagers, a 60-hp Champ, and a 2100-mile journey

Boeing 747 takeoff

Memories of flying the whale—Boeing 747

Thunderstorm at night

Flying in night skies

Cessna 172

Unstable (Final) Approaches – History, Fiction, and Fact

R44 view

Friday Photo: New York helicopter views

P-47 Thunderbolt

Old men: from Lindbergh’s flight to the horrors of World War II

Wind on water

Ya gotta be able to see the air

Boeing wing

Fly-by-wire for beginners

A-1

Nose art, among other things

G100UL vs avgas

Lead-free avgas STC—a historical preview?

Sunset wing

Friday Photo: sunset over South Carolina

Texas Raiders

Wings Over Dallas airshow tragedy: an eyewitness account from a pilot

Middlesboro, Ky

An accident waiting to happen?

Four Winds

The Four Winds: Spain’s record-setting flight to Cuba in 1933

Plane in field

Engine failure: how to predict it and how to react

Chicago

A North American flying adventure with my son

Ercoupe takeoff

Friday Photo: Miss Piggy and me

Eastern 727

Memories of flying the Boeing 727 “three holer”

Corsair V8

The $20/hour Cessna 172 experiment—Update

F-16

Another tale from the doc side

Quantico

When means, motive, and opportunity come together

Cirrus in flight

A safe pilot is a humble pilot—lessons from the Cirrus community

MTN airport

Friday Photo: waterfront runway

Dakota

Flying my Canadian airplane in Trinidad

BAC 1-11 on ramp

A different kind of concrete jungle

Diamond DA-42

“Geneva Tower, I have to go back”

An-2 airplane

Flying a Russian biplane through Alaska

Cessna 172

Safe landings are no accident

Friday Photo: peeking into North Vietnam from Laos, 1972

Go or No Go: hurricane evacuation

Preflight Bonanza

Engine trouble over Lake Michigan

F-4

A surprise sunrise in an F-4 Phantom

Skydivers in air

Never a dull moment as a skydive pilot

Super Cub

A simple oversight almost ruins a bucket list trip

Cirrus over mountains

Friday Photo: Appalachian Spring

Flight engineer

The not-so-glamourous life of a flight engineer

Convair in flight

Memories of flying the Convair 880

B-17 crew in front of airplane

Flying a B-17 over Germany, April 1944

Panel with devices

When does technology become a dangerous distraction?

Airplane off runway

What does “loss of control” mean? Probably not what you think

Sunset DTW

Friday Photo: Detroit sunset

Bell 206

Good old boys and helicopters

Takeoff from runway

Are “impossible turns” worth all the attention?

Casey with father

Passing the torch from father to son

John Bone with medic packs

Flying for Ukraine Air Rescue—small planes, big mission

Friday Photo: landing on the centerline

Closed runway

The hex of the X

Preflight planning

Long range learning: what do we bring from the flight school?

Airphibian

From the archives: The Airphibian

TWA 707

Around the world in the “seven oh seven”

Is Top Gun: Maverick based on the Bob Hoover story?

Stearman

Friday Photo: a Stearman patiently waits

F-100D

Herding cattle with a century-series fighter

Smoke from OV-10

Every pilot a tiger

Hole in 150

A 12-minute flight and a serious in-flight fire

Super Cub

Special VFR—sometimes it’s the best option

IAD

When things went wrong in a good way

Buffalo

Friday Photo: Buffalo at night

B-17

You’ll get in trouble sonny

XB-70 takeoff

A close call for the XB-70 at Edwards AFB

Radar overview

Go or no go: desert storms

Cessna 182

Weight and balance “get-there-itis” traps

AS365

A tail rotor failure at night in Saudi Arabia

Sunset with airplane

Friday Photo: sunset departure

Constellation cockpit

Where have all the pilots gone?

Stearman

California to Oshkosh in a 1941 Stearman

Garmin traffic

What a difference ADS-B In makes—or does it?

F-4E

One green light, and a near disaster

Pilot in airplane

How to improve your aviation decisions

Cessna 206

Friday Photo: Cessna 206 ready to fly

Autonomous ucar

Who is in charge of your safety?

TWA DC-9 on ramp

Flying the “little” DC-9

MacDill

SOF in the hot seat

Cirrus

Home from the game

Boeing cockpit

From Private to ATP—the closing of a cycle

Sunset Warrior

Friday Photo: flying into the sunset

Turning left

Crosswinds and emergencies—lessons from the simulator

172 landing approach

On landing well: 9 steps for success

Facebook group

How the web and social media have encouraged aviators

UH-1H

Flight test engineering at Edwards AFB in the 1960s

Birdwatching from above

C-47 view

Friday Photo: C-47 wing view

Shelter Island airport

An island farm is a good place to land

Afterburner

Flying the night shift: a Memorial Day remembrance

Mountains

Turbulence education

Flap lever

Insidious failures: don’t trust, verify

Waco

A father and son non-Oshkosh adventure

Friday Photo: Sunset over Syracuse

T-38 in flight

A rushed preflight leads to a terrifying discovery

Home simulator

Simulators: focus on saving time, not logging time

AVX

The problem with emergencies is they are difficult to schedule

B-47

Runways anchor our life—an airline pilot reflects

Trevor Jacob jump

YouTube, Top Gun, and aviation culture

Sun under wing

Friday Photo: fire and ice

Buffalo

Time management, buffaloes, and airplanes

Flight simulator

Building a frugal flight simulator

OV-10

Smile: you’re on (aviation) candid camera

Podcast: aviation safety and airmanship

Flight bag loaded

Requiem for a flight bag

Route map

Old and bold—not

Friday Photo: Bahama blue

767 sim

A pilot fresh from the sim gets a real world test

Cape Breton view

How does an engine “know” when to scare a pilot?

Pilot by airplane

My not quite rusty return to flight

Cessna 180

Test pilot: two lessons learned in Cessnas

A history of aviation gasoline

Moon

Friday Photo: 737 moonshot

Shasta off wing

Bringing the Comanche home—Apple Valley to Auburn

G1000 cockpit

Safety, philosophy, and the glass cockpit

Route

Go or no go: how much ice is too much?

Pilatus PC-12

What’s wrong with Pilatus PC-12 pilots?

First solo

Fright or flight: a first solo with an unexpected passenger

Understanding responsibility: my first flight with a passenger

Friday Photo: sunrise through a tilt-rotor

Khe Sanh takeoff

The siege of Khe Sanh

Tower BW

From the archives: Richard Bach on the pilot brotherhood

G1000 display

Weight and performance—there is a tradeoff

Thermometer at 100 degrees

Low, hot, and humid

GTN screens

What Nexrad can—and can’t—tell pilots

Friday Photo: snowy mountain peaks

Father and son

Kids in the cockpit: be sterile and not heard?

T-37

How I became friends with ATC

flight surgeon

Tales from the doc side

clouds at night with moon

What are the odds? An electrical failure at night

CFI with student

Why you should think like a pilot

Friday Photo: a lonely airplane in the desert

STOL Drag

What STOL everybody’s attention?

Cedar Rapids

A minor emergency, but only in hindsight

Waco

Maiden Mooney trip: lessons learned but fun too

Stearman

You wanna land where?!

Savannah

Who’s pilot in command? A faulty assumption leads to an accident

Friday Photo: Virga over the Adirondacks

Being sick never felt so good—a whimsical tale of a Viking owner

Scud from Cessna

A severe, multi-day case of “get-there-itis”

Podcast: Max Trescott on technology, pilot training, and Cirrus

Len Morgan by airplane

Tips from the Ancient Pelicans

Aviation’s roaring ’20s? A case for GA growth

Friday Photo: Baron sunset

Citabria parked

A little (local) knowledge is (not) a dangerous thing

Altimeter

An altimeter tried to kill me

A-6 Intruder

One in a million: a chance aerial encounter in Laos

AirCam with kids

An astronaut, an AirCam, and some kids

Scott and Dave

Full circle: two brothers and the joy of flying

Friday Photo: Oregon wildfires

C-130H

Open ocean, no instruments

DC-6

Flying a DC-6 to the edge of Alaska

Stewart Mountain Dam, AZ

Breaking news—and breaking the rules

Richard Collins

Announcement: 2022 Richard Collins Writing Prize for Young Pilots

Night Cessna

Friday Photo: night on the flightline

Smiles

First flights, for young and old

ForeFlight filing

Filing, dialing, and smiling—and a touch of humility

Runway 29 approach

A spur of the moment decision, and a missed NOTAM

Telluride

Objective area analysis for GA pilots

Friday Photo: beached ship

Top 10 articles of 2021 on Air Facts

C-130

Why did I do that? Fate follows a C-130 pilot in Vietnam

Smith

Learning to fly after 55

Carb heat

My first cross country—uneventful until…

Friday Photo: cloud-to-ground rainbow

F-105

An F-105 pilot creates his own fireworks show

Bonanza

Learning the hard way

Bob Barth

Words to live by, learned from a master

172 panel

An IFR currency adventure

Friday Photo: fall in Oregon

OV-10

Close encounters of the worst kind

Gray clouds

Rollicking in the clouds

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

Garmin Pilot weather screen

The datalink weather revolution: safer and less stressful flights

Friday Photo: a patchwork quilt

Turn from cockpit

Dad, can I fly the plane?

Super Cub landing

Stabilized approaches: the last six inches is all that counts

ForeFlight overview

Go or No Go: VFR ahead of a cold front

Logbook entries

The only flight time that counts

Friday Photo: Pacer parked at 8432 ft. MSL

N14745

Owning and flying Bellanca Vikings over the years

Max Conrad by airplane

From the archives: long distance pilot Max Conrad

HUD

Flying perpetual VFR—PFDs, HUDs, and conformal displays

Friday Photo: balloons at 9 o’clock

W&B form

Flying loaded: what could possibly go wrong?

Map of route

Airplane vs. automobile: commuting to work by air

Handshake

Finding our fathers

Reno airplanes

Friday Photo: lenticular clouds at Reno

HUD labels

When the magic dies: flying with and without HUDs

F-14 catapult

Learn to love stalls

F-105 Thud

Dumb games with very fast airplanes

From Venezuela to Alaska and back

Friday Photo: Sound Sunset

Blimp

Close call with a blimp

Seadog

Seaplane hijinks on the Connecticut River

Boeing 787

The Boeing 787’s ten years of service—a pilot perspective

RHP

It’s time to reform Obstacle Departure Procedures

Friday Photo: Denali

Towbar

There’s a reason we use checklists

172 landing

The (unofficial) rules of flying

Stretch the glide

Don’t stretch the glide—easier said than done

Over Greenland

Flying a Cirrus VFR across Russia

Friday Photo: the king is ready

Jumping from 123

Paratroopers of the 1950s: in the trees, at night

C-123 in flight

Flying (improvised) IFR in Vietnam

On ground

When hypoxia becomes real

P-51D in flight

Mustang musings: what it’s like to fly the legendary P-51

Friday Photo: pyramids of Giza from a 787

Mac McClellan

Podcast: GA trends and urban air mobility hype, with Mac McClellan

Gear up

Harmony and distractions

97Q

Confessions of a seaplane charter pilot

Cockpit view

Get-home-itis: be on the lookout

Shelf cloud at airport

Friday Photo: fog rolls in

Callsign

What’s in a (fighter pilot’s) name?

Go or No Go: cut-off low conundrum

En route

Proficiency test—a father-daughter cross-country to remember

Takeoff

A landing and a one-wheel takeoff on Interstate 25

Friday Photo: Sedona sunset

Pan Am 707

The big surprise: an unexpected fly-by

SportStar-ing it around Australia

The art of staying at home—a letter from a monk to pilots

General aviation trends in charts—2021 update

Friday Photo: Le Bourget Lake

Readers

Little details are important

Aeronca 7AC

The rising cost of membership in club general aviation

SR-71 cockpit

How I got to fly the SR-71 simulator for NASA

Maule

A close call on the water in the Bahamas

Friday Photo: deviating around a forest fire

Bob Hoover

How a local airshow thrives and dies

Cessna 152

Base turn over the trees

airline pilots

The art of being a co-pilot

Aztec

Managing engine failures on takeoff: a new approach

Friday Photo: Mt. Rainier on Victor 4

Cherokee 180

A rusty pilot returns

When aviation comes to your front yard

Pilot's view

Things that go bump in the dark

GTN screens

The greatest aviation safety improvement is…

Air traffic

9/11/01 — One pilot’s experience

Friday Photo: New Mexico view

William Piper

From the archives: Bob Buck on William T. Piper

Duckbutt C-130

Flying a Duckbutt for POTUS

MSN airport

Making a big mistake on my solo cross-country

Decathlon takeoff

Crosswind operations—no drama, please

Friday Photo: shadow vs. Cessna

Grumman parts

For sale: Grumman Traveler (some assembly required)

Things that go bump

Priest pilots

Three brothers, all priests and pilots

Early flight sim

A personal progression through flight sims

Friday Photo: Salinas sunset

F-4

It wasn’t a fly-by

Buyer in airplane

Selling my airplane after 40 years

Go or No Go: Cirrus vs. southern storms

Crash scene

Witness to an airplane crash

Friday Photo: a perfect picture over Nebraska

Stearman

An overconfident ferry pilot flies a Stearman to Oshkosh

Light rain

The right pilot mindset: realistic, not conservative

SeaRey cockpit

Life in an airplane, on and off the water

Sunset

Approach, I need the nearest airport

Friday Photo: granddaughter’s first flight

Snow on runway

A thirty year mystery solved—icy runways and crosswinds

Islander

An Easter miracle in the Canadian Arctic

DC-3 engine

Diagnosing an engine failure by sound

Cessna flare

Smooth operator: sometimes you can go too far

Friday Photo: Texas sunset

Mountains

Breaking my own “rules to fly by”

T-33

Hang on young man: fighting an invisible enemy in a T-33

Rope

The day my glider checkride almost went bad

Checklist

Checklist vs. memory items

Friday Photo: storm over Tangier Island

Turbo on Cessna 206

Suddenly the engine went quiet

F-4Ds

The hardest thing I’ve ever done in an aircraft

Inverted

Beyond the $100 Hamburger: how aerobatics can expand your horizon

Turn on short final

Reducing loss of control accidents in five minutes

Friday Photo: rise and shine

Ramp at SPA

An intro flight takes an unexpected turn

Bald spot

Who’s landing this airplane?

Indian Harvard

Fire, fire, fire

Easier than they say: flying a Cub from Idaho to Baja Mexico

Friday Photo: a sunlit thunderstorm

Zahn's

The startle response

Hand flying across Canada

G1000 NXi

The magenta line children and buttonology

Kid in Cessna

The long way back to the cockpit

Friday Photo: Texas smoke

Auster

Aerobatics in a 1946 Auster—and a lesson learned

172

An unexpected cross country challenge

Go or No Go: summertime in Florida

Challenger

There was no checklist for this one…

Friday Photo: feet wet

Indo-Pakistani war

Flying helicopters in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

Sustainable fuel

Sustainable aviation and the trouble with high performance airplanes

CFI

Coming Full Circle—Finding Your True Calling

Great expectations: ADS-B traffic uplink

Friday Photo: thunderstorms over Cambodia

Seaplane

Searching my past while flying over Moosehead Lake

RV-14A on ramp

Sunrise to sunset: never stop learning

C-5A Galaxy

Two churnin’ and two burnin’ – who’s the PIC?

Chart on iPad

Are IFR Approach Charts Obsolete?

Friday Photo: Santa Paula

VariEze

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a VariEze!

C-123 landing

Really short and really soft fields—flying C-123s in Vietnam

BO105

Helicopter escapades in the Arctic

Oshkosh overhead

NotKosh—a year without AirVenture

Friday Photo: CJ sunset

Husky

My pal Joe, ornery to the very end

Cessna

My personal Guinness Book of Records

Cockpit simulator

Desktop Flight Simulation and COVID: how it helps, how it hinders

EICN

Runways, large and small

Friday Photo: Gulfstream HUD

Stinson

A beautiful early May Day might have become a mayday

Apache

When a simulated emergency becomes all too real

Aztec

Lost in the Canadian Arctic

FACs piston

Come fly with me: life as a Forward Air Controller in Vietnam

Friday Photo: Meridian sunrise

P-40

Full of life

206

Flying bananas with an unexpected passenger

Shark

Rethinking light airplane limits

Airplane in sun

Preventable rendezvous: avoiding a mid-air collision

Friday Photo: sunrise on a grass strip

152 in a spin

Overconfident and under-coordinated

Mooney

Forced to land in Waco

Go or No Go: ice and storms over Montana

Garmin Autonomi

How much should the autopilot fly?

Friday Photo: sunset under the clouds

Cessna 310

Do you hear that?

Jump plane

Fun and games at 14,000 feet: reflections of a jump pilot

Engine failure

Familiarity breeds? Engine failures, real and imagined

Chile coast from air

Witnessing an earthquake from the air

Friday Photo: something looks wrong

DC-3

DC-3 vs. blizzard—and that’s just the beginning

Across the Canadian Arctic – Dawson to Churchill

AF cover, 8-70

Wolfgang Langewiesche on pilot proficiency

DC-6 Pan Am

Into the muck

Friday Photo: Bronco at daybreak

Mountains

The joy in flying

Thermometer at 100 degrees

Density altitude: the calculation you cannot ignore

Alameda

Negative transfer: a military pilot learns a hard lesson

Twin Otter

Overweight in a Twin Otter—but how?

Wing view

Friday photo: a freight pilot’s view

Cosentino

My first combat mission in an F-4 Phantom

FAR/AIM

The best regulations

DA42

A gear problem?

Windsock

Peer pressure among pilots

Friday Photo: Miami Beach

Sunset

Three minutes before the fan turns off

Medical X

An FAA medical story with a happy ending

Go or no go: how bad is the turbulence?

Crosswind landing airliner

Landings at the crosswind limit

Friday Photo: landing at 9000 feet

747

The mystery of a very heavy 747

Joby

What if flying cars are just a bad idea?

Pathfinder

Orders from heaven

Reading chart

Are pilots still navigating?

Friday Photo: Archer sunrise

Chinook landing

Helicopter rescue on Mount Rainier

Rockies

Grayout at 17,000 feet

An American pilot flies a Chinese-owned Citation through Russia

Sitting in Cub

The wrong stuff

Friday Photo: Colombian rainbow

Grand Canyon

The first time I ever saw the Grand Canyon

logbooks

The logbook: a generational connection

LTFH

An intro flight and shattered dreams

Mountains

Preparing for the trip of a lifetime to Alaska

Friday Photo: sunrise over the St. John’s River

182

Bam!

Aeronca finished

Civilian Pilot Training in a pre-war Aeronca Chief

Muncho Lake

An Alaska Highway flight gone wrong

Collins

Ten years of Air Facts

Friday Photo: golf and flying

Harriet Quimby

Overlooked pioneers in women’s aviation

Beech 23

Engine hiccups: third time is the charm?

Go or No Go: home before the rain?

Together in cockpit

Hangar flying: you are qualified to fly like this

Friday Photo: the fog rolls into Chicago

Pratt engine

“We was on fire; I could see the flames!”

Stalag Luft IV

The story of a winged boot, and the men who wore it

G1000 MFD with weather

A day in the life of a fledgling instructor

Cub on grass runway

Almost a ground loop

Friday Photo: logging some actual

Boring is the new black

ZUG on ramp

A flying gig in New Zealand

DC-3 Spooky

The day I really graduated to airline pilot

Jet engine fire

Mayday, mayday, mayday!

Sunset

Friday Photo: Sunset takeoff

180 on floats

Thirty years of floatplane flying in Canada

Queen Air

A Queen Air sheds a propeller

Cessna with trucks

If it can fail, it will (and anything can fail)

Cirrus EIS

Fuel Reserve Requirements—the FARs Aren’t Much Help

Friday Photo: sunset from FL 380

On the ground at Wales

Utqiagvik to Anchorage—Three Amazing Days in the Air

Runway

Two exciting landings in 21 years of flying

Air Force One

Read the NOTAM—my conflict with Air Force One

Swift

I could never be so lucky again

Friday Photo: over the moon

Jetwing on ramp

From jars to jets: the forgotten story of the Jetwing

Wright memorial

Wish fulfilled: flying to Kitty Hawk

Landing on ice

Runways optional: Twin Otter tales from the Arctic

Cirrus

Do we want flying to be hard or easy?

Friday Photo: sunrise at Monument Valley

Grumman

One in a million solo

Garmin engine gauges

Why it quits—and what to do about it

Go or No Go: over the ice at night?

LBB track

Know your limitations

Friday Photo: a Smoky Sunset

Tow bar

Flirting with real (and financial) disaster

DC-3

If something goes wrong, undo what you last did

Bonanza

Flying old school

Low approach

How low can your autopilot go?

Friday Photo: Alaska seaplane sunset

Crew car

How I almost got shot over a courtesy car

Richard L. Collins

Announcing the third annual Richard L. Collins Writing Prize for Young Pilots

Owens Valley

VFR to IFR in a flash on a solo cross-country

By 150

Finally… back in the left seat again

Friday Photo: Pure Michigan sunset

Sleeping grandkid

My rules for flying the grandkids

Stoney Creek Gap

When VFR is the only option, fly to the blue sky

Lenticular clouds

Wave soaring Warrior

Flight planning

Let’s put the do back in due diligence

Friday Photo: a foggy sunrise at the airport

Top 10 articles of 2020 on Air Facts

Ibu with 140

A Cessna 140’s story, from Wichita to Panama

Provost

Ride of a lifetime

Flight stats

What I learned about flying in 2020

Friday photo: above the thermal layer

Fog over land

A Christmas gift to myself

Donut Dollies

The day it snowed in Vietnam: a true story

Steep turn

An engineering approach to the impossible turn

Point Barrow

Journey to the End of the Earth

Friday Photo: Dominican Republic from a TBM

Flaires

Pitch black landing in Vietnam

AIRMET turb

Bratburger-itis: a memorable trip

Go or No Go: above or below the clouds?

Wing with snow

Is that airframe icing or snow?

Friday photo: Airbus X3

Cessna 411

Always bring a flashlight

PIREP turbulence

Understanding Vb: turbulence penetration speed

Gulfstream

A lucky pilot: flying celebrities around the world in a Gulfstream

Malik in sim

Flying with Malik: why the newest generation of pilots will be great

Pipstrel in flight

Friday Photo: storm over the Everglades

Glider on tow

Engine failure at 150 feet, with a glider in tow

In 172

Back in the Saddle on a Very Different Horse

Campfire

From FUBAR to fabulous: landing at 200 strips in three months

Pilatus ice

Ice bridging: the myth that won’t die

Friday Photo: somewhere over the rainbow

Smoke in cockpit

A checkride turns smoky

New engine

The $20 an hour Cessna 172 experiment

Electra

Three out of four ain’t bad—unless you’re in a Lockheed Electra

Friday Photo: the sun sets on a rewarding flight

VFR on top

VFR over the top: legal, but not clever

Husky coming out of water

My cold water splash: an airline pilot learns a painful lesson

Flight instructor

Flying with good and bad pilots—what I’ve learned as a new CFI

Foggy runway

Low Visibility Takeoffs: How Low Is Too Low?

Friday Photo: one last flight

Cessna 310

Some passengers you never forget

Crew by Huey

One medevac mission turns into two

Ag Cat

Airport stories: I don’t know but I’ve been told

Thule

Top of the world landing

Friday Photo: Southern Utah paradise

Old hangar

One last visit to a dying airport

Turbulent microlight

An airline pilot gets reacquainted with piston engines—and engine failures

Spitfire

From the archives: Checkout in a Spitfire

Puget Sound

An island oasis—flying around Puget Sound

Friday Photo: Resting

Hot air ballooning—a new experience

KLM 747

Hours of boredom, followed by…

Startle: what it is and how it affects your performance

GA safety trends: what should we worry about?

Friday Photo: under the bridge

Curtiss Falcon

Charles Lindbergh flies virus serum to Quebec

Dave Earle solo

What I did today—first solo at 60 years old

Derecho

Racing to Columbus

Flying Cirrus Jet

Leaving Las Vegas with Cirrus Jet time in the logbook

Friday Photo: morning over the Cascades

CF-104

Now do it backwards

Schleicher K 8

Flying away—two experiences flying outside the US

Go or No Go: above the bumps, below the ice?

Ice on King Air

Icing diversions—an overlooked threat

Friday Photo: sunrise over Virginia

G1000 panel

Assumptions can be dangerous in the air

iPad traffic

Does ATC care if you see traffic on your iPad?

Wooten flight crew

The Return of a Rusty Pilot, Just in Time for a Global Pandemic

Kid in Cessna

Should you take your grandchildren flying?

Friday Photo: Florida Keys

Crash sequence

They’re worried, will you search?

Not exactly an F-14, but that’s OK

Pterodactyl

High wing or low wing? Ask Mother Nature

Mayumi Nakano

Learning to fly high after loss

Friday Photo: Florida sunset

Young Eagles

Aviation Education to the Masses: How do we do it?

VH-PUL

Ferrying a 1946 Auster J2 through Australia

Wing view

A student pilot learns an important lesson

G1000

Stepping down in automation—the real lesson for children of the magenta line

Friday Photo: Puget Sound fun

Turning final

High energy approaches: student edition

Chief on floats

A less-than-graceful arrival

Go or No Go: smoky San Carlos

172 on short final

Stop calling it the impossible turn

Friday Photo: thunderstorm at sunset

Flight in L-39

How the Reno Air Races saved me

Kayla by airplane

Horses and airplanes: another rewarding Young Eagle flight

Goodyear blimp

Go Goodyear—mixing it up with the blimps

Oceano County Airport

A great day of flying—solo to Santa Barbara

Friday Photo: safe from the storm

If we were all airplanes

Airplane engine and prop

It’s annual time! Here’s what you should know

Phillips with father

A daughter teaches her dad how to fly

Cascade lake

Youthful exuberance

Friday Photo: sunrise over Georgia

Low clouds

Adding to the judgment bucket—a flight that never should have happened

CFI with student in Cessna

Student pilot nerves and the fear of flying

Boeing taxi simulator

The strangest 45 minutes in my logbook

Gulfstream takeoff

What’s different about flying jets

Friday Photo: a busy rain cloud

Lear on ramp

From Learjet to Cessna 150 in the same day

Quan Loi

Scud running in Vietnam

Go or No Go: another summer day in the Southeast

787 cockpit

On automation and airmanship

Friday Photo: Indonesian island off the wing

Wing

The clean wing—not just a concern in winter

first flight with dad

One plane and one girl’s dream

Leonardo sketches

The famous quote that da Vinci never said

Rough River

Are pilots rediscovering how to travel by light airplane?

Friday Photo: an advancing storm

On final

Unstable approaches in a pandemic world

Cirrus SR22

A young pilot’s plan to eliminate get-there-itis

Fog on runway

Approach to oblivion

Cirrus autopilot

Recovery from spirals with the LVL button

Friday Photo: Father’s Day Flying Fun Times Two

Twin Otter

Smoke in the cockpit—and stuck in the clouds

Paper headline

Ditching a Cherokee off Hawaii

Frazer River Canyon

The forever weekend: flying my Cheetah to Canada

Corporate Flying During the Pandemic

Friday Photo: dodging storms in an R44 helicopter

Aeronca

Engine failure as a student pilot

Over Canberra

Flight of a lifetime—my 8,000-mile trip around Australia

Medical

The route to a special issuance medical

Global Hawk

Autonomous control systems—what does it really mean for aviation?

Friday Photo: tilt-rotor formation

Sun over clouds

The pandemic reset

Flying 3500 miles in five days—and enjoying every minute of it

Go or No Go: dodging storms in the Southeast

Palmer Lear 24

Arnold Palmer Talks Flying: A Baker’s Dozen with the Legendary Golfer

Friday Photo: vuelos divertidos

Guam airport

A brief stop in Manila? An airline flight goes awry

Mist in valley

Night, mist, haze, and all that jazz

Video: what’s the real IFR alternate?

Cessna 172

Five airplanes every pilot should fly

Friday Photo: New Mexico badlands

C-130

An unwelcome attitude adjustment

On final

Pilot-induced oscillations: are you a sinner or a victim?

Tomahawk

Goal fixation: when ingenuity overrides common sense

Airbus A330 sim

Train like you fly—not really

Friday Photo: a close encounter

B-1B

Flying 1,500 miles with fumes in the cockpit

180 on floats

Adventures of a Canadian bush pilot

On top of clouds

A few of my favorite things from last summer’s trip around the US

Tunisia

Err on the side of safety: how I relearned this lesson

Friday Photo: lunch at the Tin Goose Diner

Scott Crossfield

The 180-degree turn: a life-saving maneuver for all pilots (even test pilots)

Night over city

Cleared for the visual—really?

Cessna in water

Implausible, providential, or dumb luck?

A-10 with pilot

Sometimes you have to break the rules

Friday Photo: Chicago on a clear day

Twin Beech

Twin Beech omelettes: learning the ropes from a freight dog

Checklist use

What pilots can teach the world about managing risk

Go or No Go: heading to the beach?

Flying with the famous and infamous

Friday Photo: P-38 Lightning

Camping

On the shoulders of giants

Sunset

Why is it so dark? An important lesson learned

On final

That radio is there for communication: a close call

Mooney 201

The magical Mooney

Friday Photo: early evening in a Cub

Walking to airplane

Flying out of the pandemic

18X on ramp

Beast on Paris Mountain: racing a thunderstorm

Cirrus jet

Threat and Error Management for the GA Pilot

Friday Photo: Lake Champlain

Autothrottle

Automated flight—are you ready?

Crash

If only… The friends I’ve lost in airplane accidents

Video: instrument approach lighting systems

Flooding

When absolutely, positively nobody believes you

Friday Photo: Cheyenne Bottoms

windosck

A satisfying long cross country, with one flaw

B-17 EAA

Once was enough—riding the Aluminum Overcast

Go or No Go: low IFR in a Baron

DWC airport

Flying in the coronavirus sky—a freight pilot’s perspective

Friday Photo: IFR between layers

Christmas card

A tribute to an aviation supermom

King Air on snow

A medevac tale of two cities

Bahamas

A long ferry flight: the Bermuda Triangle, icing, and more

172 on final approach

What to practice with limited flying time

Friday Photo: waiting to land

C-123

A minor electrical problem in Vietnam becomes a major problem

Is traditional proficiency enough?

Instrument approach G1000

Dealing with distractions

An airplane unlike any I’ve ever seen before – flying the AN-2

Friday Photo: Monterey Bay

Gray clouds

Your eyes have the deciding vote—my thunderstorm encounter

George AFB

It was a dark and stormy night…

Chinook crash

I survived the deadliest helicopter crash in European history

Cub

What will general aviation look like after COVID-19?

Friday Photo: USNS Comfort in New York

Mooney in hangar

Dreams may fade, but they don’t have to die

UH-1H

From Vietnam to Kobe Bryant—the long history of flying helicopters in fog

Go or No Go: a windy trip

Remembering my brother, who taught me to fly

Friday Photo: anticipating flight

Frasca sim

Flight simulators, safety, and the power of AI

Stellar Airpark

Don’t take things for granted

Glider flying

From glider to hang glider to jet glider

Cessna stall

Be afraid of stalls

Friday Photo: a quiet Dulles Airport

F-4 Phantom

Fighter pilot skills every aviator needs to fly safe

River valley

Landing below sea level—my bucket list flight

ICAO – more than just a flight plan format

Pan Am gliding

Towing at the Pan Am Gliding Championships

Friday Photo: a road in the clouds

Chandler and dad

Pilot in command

Flight simulator system

Flying my simulator during quarantine

Aircraft building—a journey

Dad

The joy of a flying dad

Friday Photo: the White Mountains are white

Patient transport flights: big airport experience and VIP service

Berlin airport

Did I really hear that?

Go or No Go: California convection?

Pilatus Porter

Flying for Air America—where the cargo was always interesting

Friday Photo: Philadelphia at dusk

Kid at airport fence

Training logistics—the forgotten problem with learning to fly

T-6

My first T-6 landing

Flying in the Iditarod Air Force

Airspeed indicator

Say your airspeed—which one?

Friday Photo: shiny shoes

South of Farmington

Seek out the small stories with your airplane

Cessna 310

I seem to have misplaced planet Earth

Collecting sunsets

A340 cockpit

Is software enough to keep pilots safe?

Friday Photo: formation flight on Remembrance Day

ADS-B hockey puck

The illusion of see and avoid

Between layers

Hot chicken, icy wings

Alaska: if I can do it…

Tecnam

Light Sport Aircraft aren’t selling well, but the LSA rule has still worked

Friday Photo: the Rio Grande

Seneca

A long cross country and a lesson learned

Cessna 150

The little airplane that could… and still does!

Go or No Go: VFR ahead of the front

Centerline

The promise of proficiency

Friday Photo: airplanes, large and small

Sarah

How to reassure hesitant airplane passengers

Sun

A day in the traffic pattern brings unexpected joy

Rusty hangar

There’s room for improvement at GA airports

Garmin autopilot

When to disengage the autopilot

Friday Photo: chasing the shadow

B-24

A ride to remember

Cub

Nodding off at 10 feet above the waves

Cessna 172 external

No stall, no spin: why angle of attack is essential

Oshkosh

Does flying into big fly-ins make us better pilots?

Friday Photo: Moscow under a HUD

Drone

Drones: a clear and present danger?

Route

Low on fuel: how I almost become that guy (or gal)!

V-tail parked

Canceling IFR for the last time

Demon

Hot cat pilot

Friday Photo: Georgia sunset

ILS approach at night

A night landing leads to serious target fixation

View over water

Learning to fly the wrong way—and loving every minute of it

LOGG

A lesson for life

Friday Photo: two unique airplanes in one shot

Richard L. Collins

The second annual Richard Collins Writing Prize for Young Pilots

Spitfire in flight

Flying the Spitfire—a real bucket list experience

A personal Go or No Go scenario – grade my decision

Upset

Why upset training just doesn’t work

Friday Photo: a Diamond over Detroit

DC-3 landing

The Ace Team: having a little fun in a DC-3

Spitfire

Even Routine Flights Can Have Surprises in Store

Video tip: flying procedure turns

Canyon

How to safely reduce the radius of your turn—in case you need to

Friday Photo: sunset over a tip tank

Zaragoza Airport

All’s well that ends well… right?

Crew on wing

Another day in the life of an air commando

JetStar

Habit patterns don’t always transfer

Friday Photo: Wichita fog

ISZ

More than an FBO

Editor’s choice: our top 10 articles from 2019

B-47E

A bomber crew Christmas

Telluride

Friday Photo: on final for Telluride

Sectional

Learning Morse code in the 21st century

Soft field landing

Doing soft field landings for real

Venice

More travel, less tourism – how aviation can take us beyond the guidebook

Citation in fog

My life as a new corporate pilot

Friday Photo: Isla Culebrita

The green book and the NOTAMs – go beyond just departure and destination

Always watching: why I wasn’t really alone on my first local solo flight

Go or No: staying out of the ice

Sectional charts

Who Needs Charts? Under the Rules You Probably Don’t

Friday Photo: Mt. Hood reflections

Pietenpol

A funny thing happened on the way to nowhere

Sikorsky helicopter

Heroic rescue at Fremont

Checkride

Discovery flight at 16, Private Pilot at 17

Engine failure

Engine out: the essential steps to a safe outcome

Friday Photo: closing in on Telluride

Pat Luebke at Oshkosh

Remembering Pat Luebke, Long-time Air Facts Managing Editor

Airline delays – sometimes you just can’t win

After paint

A year of stewardship – managing a flying club airplane

L-39 cockpit

Blue camouflage rocket ride – my flight in an L-39

Friday Photo: Chipmunk at rest

Snow and fog

Escape from the jaws of IMC

Ten things I know about flying in Massachusetts

Cessna 150

First and last solo

Baby Ace

Bringing home the Baby Ace

Friday Photo: Melbourne from a helicopter

Cessna 120

Summers long ago: a 1500-mile trip in a Cessna 120

Phil in glider

Letting go: my first cross-country flight without an engine

Go or No Go: rain over Florida

Are single pilot risks real?

Columbia Mountains

Friday Photo: Sunset over the Columbia Mountains

Clouds over mountains

That other ice

Nine things I know about flying in Iowa

Cloud map

From the archives: Langewiesche on the weather revolution that mostly happened

Mojave boneyard

My visit to an aircraft boneyard

Friday Photo: Monument Valley

Sailboat

Towing a Beaver under sail

Clouds off wing

The discipline to say no

Flight instruction

Fly like a professional? Yes, we can and should!

Friday Photo: a great-looking panel

Nine things I know about flying in Wisconsin

Reader question: in what year did you first solo and what was the airplane?

Mooney

How many second chances do you get?

Friday Photo: Rocky Mountain National Park

Route to Russia

VFR to Russia? No problem!

Griswold Airport

Read those NOTAMs!

Pilot in Cessna

Volare: the family circle of fliers

Friday Photo: Isla Palomino

airline pilots

When pilots have too much experience

Cessna 210

Omaha to Tel Aviv in a Cessna 210

Go or No Go: heading home on Friday afternoon

787 cockpit

Manual override and Occam’s razor

Friday Photo: sharing the sky

Pan Am 747

Jumpseating to Europe… maybe

Eight things I know about flying in Arizona

Video tip: IFR departure considerations

210 oil

What’s a real emergency?

Friday Photo: a Cub at rest

Bonanza bent metal

I damaged my airplane. Now what?

Piper Cub

My first flying lesson

Storm

“In this business we play for keeps”

Cranberry harvest

Friday Photo: cranberry harvest

B-17 on ramp

History moving forward – my flight in a B-17

Eight things I know about flying in Georgia

Route BIL BOI

Go or No Go: IFR over the mountains

Conquest

Accident report roundup: time in type

Twelve Apostles

Friday Photo: the Twelve Apostles

Connie

Memories of flying the Connie

737s parked

The perfect pilot myth is finished

Grass runway

From the archives: Wolfgang Langewiesche on airports in every town

Mooney door

I didn’t look in the right place

Friday Photo: chasing the rainbow

Airline cockpit at night

Night, over water

Nine things I know about flying in Maryland

Parvez Dara

My “pucker factor” story

Friday Photo: Indonesia airstrip

Ercoupe takeoff

My excellent Ercoupe adventure

Whitted Airport

A fifty-fifty decision in Florida

question mark

Reader question: what do non-pilots ask when they learn you fly?

OSU airport

Rod Stewart and my first solo

172 over Argentina

Friday Photo: a GoPro view of Argentina

Feeling helpless on my second solo cross-country

Seven things I know about flying in California

Video tip: circle-to-land instrument approaches

Snow below

Denver to Norway in a Pilatus PC-12

Friday Photo: the plains of New Mexico

Island Beach State Park

A pilot struggles with bladder control

American airlines airplane

Pilots make a deal with the devil

Go or No Go: home from Michigan?

Citabria on grass runway

Always read the fine print

Friday Photo: sunset over a grass strip

ADS-B deviation

Thunderstorms and ATC – how to get from A to B when direct isn’t an option

Six things I know about flying in New York

Incursion

Two on the runway – what would you do?

Friday Photo: pancake ice formation

Tampa chart

Snakebite and other associated conditions

Air Force One

Cub Crafters Sport Cub vs. Air Force One

Pilot in cockpit with instructor

From the archives: how valuable are check rides?

A4 Skyhawk

Night flight in an A4B Skyhawk

Friday Photo: Badlands off the wingtip

Shirt tail cutting

First solo on my 16th birthday (and why aviation is amazing)

Seven things I know about flying in Illinois

Memory flights – sometimes you just know

Friday Photo: solar eclipse over Chile

Sun n fun tent

Aviation nirvana – my trip to Sun ‘n Fun

San Francisco view

A memorable seaplane flight on San Francisco Bay

Catalina Airport

Reader question: what is the best and worst airport you’ve visited?

Flight instructor

So what’s the rush?

Friday Photo: Gold Coast, Australia

AirPat2

Aerial patrol – spotting sharks

Ohio postcard

Nine things I know about flying in Ohio

Biplane crash

A biplane engine failure, and the start of a new business

Friday Photo: Laurel Lake

Frank Thomas

Five dollar Frank and the poor man’s flying school

Reading Air Show

From the archives: the 1968 Reading Show

Thunderstorm cloud

Piecing it together after a flight goes awry

Friday Photo: snowy French Alps

Postcard

Nine things I know for sure about flying in Michigan

Inside Passage

White knuckle scud running

Go or No Go: summertime storms in Mississippi

Lowake sign

The Lucky Lubbock Lads at Lowake and Lessons Learned Therein

Friday Photo: California sunset

SFO 1952

Full circle: learning to fly and retiring at SFO

Passenger throwing up

“I’m just trying to keep my lunch down”

Aviation books

Reader question: how do you know you’re an aviation nerd?

DC-3 HFS

Like overtaking on a blind corner and hoping nothing is coming the other way

Friday Photo: dreaming of flights to come

Two Z's

The unspoken words between fathers and sons in the cockpit

Crystal and father

The day my dad taught me the lesson of a lifetime

Dad, Paul and author

Round engines and tailwheels: a tribute to my dad, Joe Santana

Shane and son

Two memorable days of flying with my son

Friday Photo: early morning lava

Fuel truck

I almost ran the tanks dry

Ben Siepser

Into the fog: a kid’s view of IFR flying

Radar scope 1968

From the archives: Richard Collins goes behind the scenes at Center

Airport road

I just wanted to fly the little airplanes at the little airport

Friday Photo: turns around Padres Butte

FAA inspector

Bunch of arrogant bastards

Grandpa's logbook

Chasing my shadow

John Wise CFI

Lessons from a later bloomer CFI – and why you should be one too

Friday Photo: New York City at night

Glider flying

A glider with no tail? I flew one

Vinton Land with Rain Main

Visiting the Mooney family

Go or No Go: beating the storms?

Cessna 210 in flight

Why I love it, why I hate it: Cessna 210

Friday Photo: snowy Teton

Lake at sunset

Fifteen minutes at dusk

Hackneys

On becoming an old, new pilot

Elvis airplane

Reader question: have you ever met a celebrity through aviation?

Snowy field

Whiteout in a Cub

Friday Photo: wilderness camping

Lakes by Grove

Medical crisis on a solo cross-country

Scott Crossfield picture

Erasing four decades of regret, and remembering a friend

Video tip: introduction to the G1000 PFD

F-117s at Holloman

Battling G forces at Holloman Air Force Base

Friday Photo: Ohio sunset from a 172

Layers

Icing lessons learned over the Montana Continental Divide

Static cone 737

What is that dragging behind the Boeing 737 MAX in TV news video?

Richard Collins’s 10 most popular articles on Air Facts

Richard L. Collins

What I learned from Richard Collins

Friday Photo: frontal passage

B-52 bomber

Near miss with a BUFF

Boeing 727

How to unload a Boeing – by hand

From the archives: Wolfgang Langewiesche on mountain flying

Lancair

Low and fast – a bad combination

Friday Photo: California poppy bloom

Cherokee takeoff

Early flight adventures – and errors

Valley in CO

High mountain flying course: it takes more than a pilot license and a plane

Go or No Go: flying to The Masters

Sukhoi 26

Lost over Russia in an aerobatic airplane

Friday Photo: sun painting the clouds

Lake Amphib

The water is up close and personal in a Lake Amphibian

Triple Tree fly-in

5 good things about general aviation in 2019

737 MAX

737 MAX crashes raise questions about design, testing, certification – and training

Friday Photo: sunset over Istanbul

Meditation

From anxiety to mindfulness meditation – a pilot’s journey to wellbeing

Companions in airplane

Winning over a reluctant passenger

Sun over clouds

Reader question: have you ever experienced aviation nirvana?

F-16 in flight

Military flybys: rules and mistakes

Friday Photo: Boulder from a 172

Hutchinson grandfather by Cirrus

The old man in the plane

Airplane for sale

From renting to owning – and reluctantly back to renting

Windsock

I can’t believe I did that… and that… and that

Friday Photo: Angel Flight passenger

Aeroflex-Andover airport

Student flight control jam

Wingtip damage

One of those days I should have stayed home

From the archives: Bob Buck on low approaches

Instrument flight

Do we need a basic instrument rating?

Friday Photo: sunset in Denmark

Cessna 340

My favorite feature – a relief tube

Go or No Go: Rocky Mountain mess

Boeing 737 MAX

Can Boeing trust pilots?

Jones Beach

It just wasn’t my turn

Friday Photo: Chicago lights

iPad in cockpit

Bridging the gap – why we need to teach pilots how to use electronic flight bags

Dakota

A stupid decision: ignoring the oil pressure gauge

John Glenn and Kent Ewing in Baron

Reader question: what pilot, past or present, would you most like to fly right seat with?

Beech Lightning

What doomed the Beech Lightning?

Friday Photo: an ocean of clouds

Surprise at 11,000 feet

Route to Chicago

Flying 275 miles so I could run 26.2 miles

Cessna 150

One last airplane ride for Dad

Friday Photo: Swiss peaks on a solo cross-country

Fuel truck

The teacher becomes the student

Gear handle

From now on, I’ll always…

Langewiesche by Cub

From the archives: Wolfgang Langewiesche on quiet airplanes

Arrow IV

A trip to Mexico in the best of the worst airplanes ends in a costly fiasco

Friday Photo: FL430 from a Lear 45XR

747 takeoff

Dear NASA: learning from my mistakes

Freeway at night

My night engine-out emergency

Go or No Go: winter warm front

Tri Pacer

A Tri Pacer is not an Alaska bush plane

Sunset

Friday Photo: Chicago sunset

Piper Comanche

An interrupted checklist leads to some excitement

Archerfield airport

Near miss in the pattern

Crash

Reader question: what is your aviation nightmare?

Making flight fun from the right seat

Friday Photo: T-34 formation

172 on short final

Landing energy management – the key to smooth touchdowns

T-39 Air Force

Flying Air Force officers around in Sabreliners

Power lines

Accident report roundup: controlled flight into wires

Trueblood in airplane

What draws us skyward?

Friday Photo: Australian lake

CDI flags

What is your technology telling you?

Trophy by Mooney

Going Mach 0.3 with your hair on fire

Video tip: flying IFR with glass cockpits

Neil Armstrong in glider

Neil Armstrong was my co-pilot

Friday Photo: Cincinnati from a Caravan

Purvis helicopter

The forgotten story of the first helicopter patent ever issued

The most important bags aren’t suitcases

R44 hovering

What’s wrong with Robinson R44 pilots?

Friday Photo: steam gauges or glass?

Jumpseat

What are the chances? Jumpseating to get married

Thunderstorm cloud

“No complaints” – how I stumbled into a thunderstorm

Go or No Go: how do you define scud running?

Bryce Canyon Airport

Hope is a bad plan in an airplane

Friday Photo: on top in a Cirrus

SkyMax airplane

A new aircraft – and a new dimension to air travel

Clipped wing Cub

The day my life changed – my first flight

Air Traffic Control

Flying into Y2K

Friday Photo: a wingtip rainbow in Colombia

Reader question: what’s your 2019 flying resolution?

Braniff Convair

From the archives: Len Morgan on the personal stories a pilot sees

Friday Photo: Merry Christmas from a floatplane

Cessna 150

Elevator failure at 4500 feet in a Cessna 150

The crash site

Remembering a Christmas tragedy 50 years later

Surgeons

From zero to hero – every professional was once an amateur

Friday Photo: a French chateau from the air

Grumman Cheetah

When a practice emergency becomes the real thing

Radar map

The two rules of weather flying

Airport with planes

A fly-in movie night in the mountains of Australia

Friday Photo: the Swiss Alps

Cuba

We flew a Mooney to Cuba for the weekend!

A Christmas book list for pilots: 18 top picks

Santa Clara River

Stuck on a riverbed in a Champ

Friday Photo: rainbow off the left wing

View from Cessna

The tricky triangle – my ill-fated solo cross country

Waiz with kid

A brief history of single-engine solo circumnavigation flights

Braniff 727

Dreaming of jets while flying a DC-3

Friday Photo: Music City at sunset

Cessna 150

My first in-flight emergency

Connie

From the archives: Bob Buck on radar

Swift Fuels

The unleaded fuel disaster – what it means for pilots

Friday Photo: leaving storms on the other side of the mountains

Ammeter

The pre-preflight inspection: know your plane’s history

Captain

10 ways to know you’re ready to be an airline captain

Video tip: seven bad radio habits

Clouds from Cessna

A 1200 nm VFR workout

Friday Photo: Mt. Ida, British Columbia

B-25

Warbirds: a living tribute

500mb chart

How dynamics and thermodynamics create weather

The Richard Collins Writing Prize for Young Pilots

Double decker airplane

How one pilot’s story saved my life

Friday Photo: above the clouds in Argentina

RAAF Sabre

Not your typical bombing run

The cellphone 27 approach into Helena

US airspace

Who controls the navigable airspace?

Friday Photo: backcountry flying in a Super Cub

Hurricane damage

It was a smooth day until that one big bounce

Collins family

I’ve got connections

T-28 on carrier

Doing it the old school way: carrier qualification in the 1950s and 60s

Friday Photo: sunrise over a Cirrus wing

Matanuska River

Poor planning, poor choices, and poor airmanship

F-15

Fighting the war on drugs in the Air Force

Runway lights at night

How spatial disorientation can trap pilots

Friday Photo: Phoenix sunset

Cherokee 140

The day I almost didn’t take off

Cirrus SR22T

Flying is no joke

Tower controller

The case against practicing in the pattern

Friday Photo: Colorado mountains

Lake Placid

Lake Placid: anything but

Engine stopped in a Cessna

The bad news and good news about engine failures

Video tip: IFR flight plans, fact and fiction

Cruise ship

Why airline pilot schedules and cruises don’t mix

Friday Photo: a not-so-dry lake in Australia

Veteran by airplane

Changing perspectives, one flight at a time

Hot airport ramp

When breaking the rules is the safest thing to do

Navigator on C-130

From C-130 navigator to drone pilot to CFI – my atypical journey

Friday Photo: an Austrian castle

Cessna on runway

The other 4 C’s of aviation

A flight of firsts doesn’t quite go according to plan

Piper takeoff

Growth over comfort – true for airplanes and kids

Friday Photo: a rainy sunset

Crow FBO ramp

Compound emergency – a line boy learns a lesson

De Havilland Beaver on floats

Fear the reader – my first charter seaplane flight

Kid in airplane

“Is it always like this?”

Friday Photo: snowy mountain peaks

First solo shirt tail

Aviation addiction syndrome – it could happen to you

BRS handle

For want of a nail…

A pilot’s dilemma: inoperative instruments or equipment

Friday Photo: San Juan Islands

4R9

The emergency that wasn’t

Low approach in Pilatus

Avionics transitions – ain’t nothing like the real thing

Video tip: talking with air traffic controllers

172RG on runway gear up

My intentional gear-up landing

Friday Photo: Banks Peninsula, New Zealand

How to use a Skew-T Log-P diagram

OSH18

Adventure at AirVenture – the experience of flying to Oshkosh

Friday Photo: Angel Falls, Venezuela

How to safely solo a student in minimum time

Piper Seneca

A multi-engine rating in a weekend

DC-4

A long and noisy flight during the “good old days” of airline travel

Friday Photo: The Tetons

Miriam Seymour

Guy garbage: a woman learns to fly in the 1950s

Airline pilots

Chasing the rabbit

Threats: can they keep us safe?

Friday Photo: Western Australia from a 172

Luscombe

My greatest misadventure

Columbia River

The incident that caused me to walk away from flying for two years

Stearmin

Fitting in flying around a busy life – and learning a lesson

Friday Photo: Santa Barbara smoke

Bucket list flight to the Wright Brothers Memorial – check!

King Air 350

5 events that shaped my flying life

Bonanza crash site

Accident notification and reporting – the details matter

Friday Photo: Oshkosh!

California coast

Plan to fly, fly the plan

Cessna Skyhawk

Never fly in New Jersey

Tom Neil, One of Two Living WWII RAF Aces, Flies West

Friday Photo: bridge across Sarasota Bay

Kid at airport fence

Reader question: when did you know you had the aviation bug?

Citation X

Congratulations, you’re a captain now

Radar map

Don’t ruin a flying vacation with weather worries

Friday Photo: The Hague from a Cessna 172

My first solo IFR cross-country

F-4 Phantom

Delivering F-4s to Iran

Clouds in mountains

An aeronautical decision that changed my life

Friday Photo: Trimotor view

Fairey airplane

Everyone wanted to be the first to fly across the pond

IND

The first (real) cross-country

Bahamas

What are your favorite airports?

Friday Photo: sharing a sunset

Cirrus wreckage IL

Accident report roundup: three Cirrus stall scenarios offer important lessons

A bad case of get-there-itis

Airplane out side window

Surviving the merge: how to avoid a mid-air collision

Friday Photo: Sportstar sunrise

My adventures in the right seat

Bush pilot landing

The old, bold pilots of Alaska

Accident site

You did everything absolutely right, and you could have been absolutely dead

Friday Photo: Misty Mountain Hop

A kinder, gentler FAA

The GPS revolution at 20 – how aviation has changed

Night flight

Why night flying is special

Friday Photo: sunset over the Chesapeake

No place to hide – a flight instructor slips up

Emergency landing vs. crashing

Landing gear up – how the unthinkable happened to me

Friday Photo: Arizona canyons

Bahamas

The relaxed life as a charter pilot in the Bahamas

An airline pilot gets his general aviation fix

Back to basics: flying 727 LaGuardia shuttles

Friday Photo: sunset in the rain

Go or No Go: finding a gap

Flying a Pitts Special over the Amazon

Silent night over the Appalachian Mountains

Friday Photo: Chicago fly-by

Putting on a good show in Chile with F-15s

First solo

That magical age: a pilot’s 40-year journey from Cessna to Airbus

Friday Photo: Richard Collins with Concorde

Richard Collins' Cessna P210

Learning from the master

The best in the world, and a truly good man

Meeting him was like meeting God

Cessna P210

Personal flying’s greatest champion

Richard Collins

Working with an icon for over 40 years

Aviation’s everyman hero

Friday Photo: commuting home at sunrise