According to a recent study, the elapsed time between the first indications of a hidden fire and the…
At about 11 AM, just as I arrived to fly an R-22 into a cool blue March sky…
Believe it or not, the cylinders in aircraft engines have been known to fail. While this doesn't happen…
And I have been taking notes. Over the course of many years I have had the opportunity to…
It's nearing midnight. A damp fog rolls lazily off the Gulf of Mexico, thick clouds blurring the lines…
STUFF HAPPENS WHEN WE FLY. Whether that stuff is exciting (like an engine failure), or it's just a…
I happened to remember the other day while I was driving this experience from my life as a…
Although not yet reflected by a huge wave of incident reports. Regardless, technological distractions are a growing problem…
The lack of awareness continues to be a source of problems when aircraft move on the ground. Not…
Every year it happens. Pilots press on into deteriorating weather conditions. It is the leading cause of fatal…
The lack of position awareness takes place more often than we want to admit. In a post 9/11…
The accident numbers and NASA reports seem to cluster around particular areas of operation. This fact should serve…
I heard about this one from a wanna-be pilot in the California area, which if you've been following…
Maybe one of the best "flying lessons" I ever got took place 60 feet below ground level! Back…
Should the title of last week's accident report be, "When you gotta go, ya gotta go." Or, "Always…
Common sense and calculations were missing when two pilots ran out of fuel in flight and experience off-airport…
Bad things can happen when a pilot flies without understanding the complete situation that surrounds them. Last week…
If we can spot where a pilot goes wrong on a flight, will it be easier to recognize…
Flaps are a pretty standard device on airplanes, and one that many pilots take for granted. Whether we…
Not every engine-out need take you by surprise and even if there's nothing you can do about the…
Tires are one of the most forgotten parts of our airplanes. After all, we spend a majority of…
Most aircraft engines are limited by the structure of the atmosphere -- the higher you go, the less…
Some years ago I was deposed as an expert witness in the case of an aircraft accident. The…
It seems that the most obvious thing can become elusive when you don't concentrate on the details. A…
When I heard about this story, I nearly fell out of my chair. A pilot and his passengers,…
I leveled at 11,000 feet as Santa Fe slid beneath the left wing. Turning southeast onto the airway…
For most of us, if our engine quits, we're going down. It happens, though not often. About half…
We have covered a lot of ground on the fueling of airplanes lately, but you can imagine our…
Anyone who has ever caught themselves flying while getting uncomfortably close to the big "E" will appreciate the…
Here's a story you don't hear very often. It is a tale of a hard IFR flight, and…
Emergencies are rare but that does not mean it's a good idea to be unprepared for them. Emergency…
Transitioning to a new airplane can be a lot of fun, if you do it correctly. I can…
On April 27, 2000, a Canadian commercial helicopter pilot (who was also a helicopter flight instructor) took off…
Sometimes, the choice to abort is complicated by other possibilities -- the unpleasant things that will likely happen…
Aborting a takeoff can be as uneventful as simply reducing power and rolling to a stop. It may…
IT WAS ALL OVER IN A FLASH, literally in the blink of an eye. The airplane was trashed…
Rosanne Roseannidanna warned us years ago: "It's always something." As pilot-in-command you may have meticulously planned your takeoff,…
The number of our landings must always equal our number of takeoffs -- or so goes the adage…
We had even more questions on fueling as a result of the article on explosive potentials in fueling…
The pilot stated that he set 10 degrees of flaps for takeoff from the relatively short runway. The…
Recently this column focused on the collision between a Cessna 172 and a Piper Cheyenne just west of…
Get Lost! Think about how many times you have heard that in your life (alright, some of us…
I knew the pilot of the Piper Cheyenne turboprop that January 24 collided with a Cessna 172 near…
So what happens after notification of an emergency reaches the Flight Standards District Office? What is more dangerous…
Man, my airplane is fast, boasts a pilot. "I was getting 150 knots true groundspeed."
The participants in the first simulator session all appeared to be reluctant to tell the controllers that they…
I received a letter recently from an old pilot friend of mine, who said he had experienced a…
A careful preflight won't protect you from some problems -- in the case of a flap problem though,…