As a flight instructor, I have made several thousand touch and goes – but I don’t do them…
Question: Under what circumstances can it be beneficial for pilots to emit grunting noises?
Nothing sizzles and nothing sells quite like performance numbers. Two of the most commonly used metrics in describing…
Gear-up and gear-collapse accidents (what I call collectively 'Landing Gear-Related Mishaps,' or LGRMs) account for nearly half of…
Question: What is happening to the airplane in this picture? (U.S. Navy photo by Ensign John Gay)
Anyone who has ever watched an airliner land and noticed the puff of blue smoke that appears the…
Landing gear-related mishaps (LGRMs) account for nearly half of all reported accidents involving certified, piston-engine retractable gear aircraft.…
If we could see them, what would thermals look like?
I've often made wry reference to the coward's credo that discretion is the better part of valor. Aside…
It can happen to anyone. And it does with alarming regularity. At minimum, nearly half of all mishaps…
We perform takeoffs and landings all the time. I’ve done more than a little reading in aviation textbooks…
A friend of mine has a turbocharged, single-engine airplane. Part of the appeal of the turbo is the…
YOU’D THINK PILOTS WOULD BE SMART ENOUGH TO STAY CLEAR OF HANGARS. I would think so, since when…
What is one danger to watch out for in a weight shift controlled ultralight aircraft in which either…
If the atmosphere had the same density throughout its vertical extent as it does at sea level, where…
1) Airplane propellers generate most of the noise that is the source of complaints (at least those against…
Did you know that flying at maneuvering speed when encountering turbulence might not be such a good idea?…
If you have a system onboard the airplane that can turn a dark night into a sunny day…
When I am sitting back in the coach section of an airliner (row 28F) on a dark and…
There have been some unexpected airline pilot retirements lately - unexpected because the captain had not reached age…
Propellers on most multiengine airplanes, and even some singles, have an unique capability to feather, to be brought…
You might not think of it this way, but for the vast majority of us who are based…
Move up from most training airplanes into high performance aircraft and you’ll confront a number of new gauges…
Yep, you read that right, flames, as in FIRE (which is never a good word around an airplane…
In September the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pulled the prescription pain killer Vioxx off the shelves and…
Among aviation's many trite aphorisms, there is one that I consider forever immunized against the discrediting stigma of…
YOU DON'T OFTEN HEAR ABOUT EVENTS LIKE THIS, BUT THEY DO HAPPEN. I happened to notice that there…
You don’t hear about people hand-propping planes very much any more. While there are still a good number…
The engine failure didn’t happen suddenly.... I was flying a Mooney M20C in clear, cool air, 7500 feet…
Back in the early days of the last century, when most men wore hats and a great many…
1) How long have directions been expressed in degrees clockwise from North? 2) How fast would you need…
I’d like you to think back a minute. The last time you practiced stalls, either with a flight…
Many times in your flying career, even if while on the wing, your most focused objective is comprised…
Recently we looked at engine-failure case studies of aircraft that are close to identical in design and performance…
Watching pilots at work can be very informative, but sometimes you see things you didn’t want to see.…
In my past several articles, I have been telling you about pilot observations I have made and categories…
At various points during my instrument training, my redoubtable primary (and instrument) instructor took me on a number…
Accidents involving degraded performance due to density altitude continue to plague pilots. The precise effects of temperature upon…
Aside from ultralights or any “sport class” aircraft, under what circumstances is it possible for a pilot without…
Airline pilots must retire at age 60. What is the mandatory retirement age that generally applies to air…
You’re in a descent, passing through 1000 feet, and approaching your destination airport in southern Arizona, at night.…
The FAA rules require that we fly with current charts. Most of us have probably noticed that, overall,…
In a single-engine airplane engine failure introduces relatively few decision steps. The airplane's tendency during the emergency is…
How are your radio skills? I happen to subscribe to the notion of multiple intelligences when it comes…
Which of the following have not, at least once, been flown through by an airplane?
While talking once with avionics professionals at the Aircraft Electronics Association show I learned some problems they found…
It’s hard to argue the 'single vs. twin' debate ... especially with someone who had just put a…
Some pilots have good habits. Others don't. After watching pilots for many years, I tried to understand what…