First trip to SUN ‘n FUN

It’s been just over a week since I departed KLAL (Lakeland, Florida) after enjoying four wonderful days at SUN ‘n FUN 2016. This had been the first airshow I have attended, and being what I consider to be a “new pilot” (205 hours, PPL earned just one year ago) it was an amazing experience.
Scud running

The most inherently dangerous of all flying techniques

It’s unwise, it’s in contravention of standing FARs, and it is - without argument - the most inherently dangerous of all flying techniques. It puts crop dusting, aerobatics, and banner towing up in the bleachers. It’s far more dangerous than flying as a salmon spotter for the Alaska fishing industry. Except for herring spotting, that is, which is in a category of its own.
Twin throttle quadrant

Will I ever be ready for the checkride?

As I was being vectored for an instrument approach into Thomaston, Georgia, the airplane suddenly lurched to the right. An engine had failed, as I'd suspected it might. I was rusty on my instrument flying skills, but I was flying only by reference to instruments. I wondered what I'd gotten myself into.

Flying to Chicago for an important mission

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

How to do the world’s worst intro flight

Bellevue’s one small FBO sported a “Piper Flight Center” sign above the door, with a couple of relatively new Cherokees parked in front. I went inside and presented myself to the combination receptionist/ cashier/ scheduler/ Unicom radio operator, and told her I was interested in taking their $15 intro flight. She leaned past my shoulder to yell at someone behind me.
Diamond DA-40

My first real emergency

Despite all the times I’ve practised these things, both in the aircraft and the simulator, you know at the back of your mind that it’s not real, and that if things do not work out as planned, you can always open the throttle and go around. Only when it’s the real thing do you know whether you can actually handle it or not.
Vickers Viscount

The little Viscount that coulda, woulda, shoulda – but didn’t?

When we approached the button, we saw the visibility had dropped to ¼ mile in S+ and, as we rolled onto the runway heading, there appeared to be half an inch of wet snow on the surface. The F/O was doing the flying and just after V1 he shouted out, “Jim she won’t fly.”
Thermometer 50 below zero

An upside down landing on a remote Alaska strip

When the Cessna went up ever so slowly, pausing when the cowling slipped into the snow cover, I still thought we’d be all right. Instead of settling back to earth, though, the tail paused for an eternity—and then went slowly over to put us upside down on this very remote bush strip. Our world was upside down and we were now really in for it...
Passenger in RV-12

An unforgettable passenger shows the power of sharing a flight

I have given a lot of people rides in both my RV-6 and now in my RV-12, and I always enjoy it as least as much as they do. What I have failed to realize, though, is that what I consider to be nothing more than a small favor may very well be measured at a far higher worth to the recipient. Phil was one of those passengers.
PSP airport with mountains

Baptism by air

I decided to descend to 3000 feet, by cutting power and setting the nose down slightly. Suddenly all hell broke loose, and the airplane felt like it was being pushed by a force from above. My airspeed was approaching 160 kts with power pulled back.
Checkride complete

Staying alive: the merits of multi-state training

Weather was almost never an issue in California, but I sure learned about the effects of density altitude in ways I’d never experienced in Alaska. Off-airport landings and gravel takeoffs are common enough in Alaska, but I sure learned the value of understanding Air Traffic Control procedures and complex airspace flying through the Lower 48.
Yellow jacket

A different kind of buzz job

I taxied onto runway 9, gradually added full power and rotated at 65 knots. As I climbed out, I scanned the instruments and then the horizon, left to right. The engine sounded good, key gauges for a departure climb – airspeed, altimeter, turn coordinator and one of my favorites, oil pressure - all in the green. As my eyes reached the right side of the windshield, my eyes locked on, panic rising...
Alec Helmke with grandfather

Joining the brotherhood – a student pilot’s first cross country

I sat in the complex glass cockpit and looked over an array of instruments which I had no idea how to interpret. This was the most advanced and expensive aircraft I had ever been in, but I was not the pilot. In fact, to reach this point, I had flown in an aircraft many consider the archetype of simplicity…

Dogfighting with ADS-B traffic over Pennsylvania

It was an unremarkable flight so far, but suddenly the large letters “TRAFFIC” plastered across my screen with corresponding alert. Three hundred feet below and slightly behind was an airplane, approaching fast. I banked left and right in my low wing craft, looking for the guy, who must be right below me, now 200 feet. On a collision course.
Full cockpit of aviation authors

10 pilots in a 4-seat Cessna

I am so lucky. Every flight, I am accompanied by nine extraordinary pilots, looking over my shoulder and whispering in my ear. They have made my flying safer, more enjoyable and less expensive. They’ll go with you, too. All you have to do is ask.
Cherokee after mid-air

Surviving a mid-air

At approximately 200 ft. AGL there was a thud and the 140B shuddered as a glimpse of red passed by my left-side window. Then a red airplane (type still unknown at that point) passed in front of my windscreen, hit the nose of my aircraft, and disappeared under my starboard wing, all in about three seconds.
Brenham, TX airport

Borrowing from the bag of luck

As I finished my private pilot training in 2006, my instructor told me that we start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck. Less than three months later, the ink barely dry on my certificate, I had occasion to test that maxim.

My first time as an aviation mentor – what do I do?

It feels good to be a mentor. I have never been one before - at least in aviation. If anyone out there reading this has any words of advice I could give to the young man I would sure like to hear them. Seeing his passion for flying kind of rekindles my own.
Lake Hood

An unusual first solo, Alaska-style

It was on a Friday the Thirteenth, in April of 1956, that I soloed out at Lake Hood Seaplane Base in Anchorage, Alaska. I had waited for several months for this date, as I had, for some misguided reason, always thought of Friday the Thirteenth as a lucky day for me. I’d had eight and one-half hours of dual instruction up to that point, and my instructor thought that I was ready.
Pietenpol Air Camper

How flying saved my life

To be honest, flying didn’t really save my life. It did, however, make me a better person, dad, husband and surgeon. Unlike many who grew up dreaming to fly, I didn’t start in aviation until I was 30. I never really thought that it was a possibility for me to become a pilot. This all changed with a free hamburger at a hangar at a small airport.