Learn to Fly

Continuing Educaton

CONTINUING EDUCATON

Failing the Annual

Once a year, aircraft owners lay their airplane bare while an expert methodically checks and prods it for…

⏱ 5 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

Trivia Testers : Breaking the Sound Barrier

Airplane propellers generate most of the noise that is the source of complaints (at least those against piston…

⏱ 5 min read
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Defining Pilots: The Lost in Space Category

I have performed simulator studies with large groups of pilots and found that among them there are sub-categories…

⏱ 4 min read
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Trivia Testers : Sunrise, Sunset

A prototype of the venerable Boeing 707 launched the honored lineage of the Boeing 7-7 series of airliners…

⏱ 8 min read
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The Snowball Effect Category

After observing pilots in action for several years I started seeing trends in how they handled stressful situations.…

⏱ 7 min read
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Trivia Testers : On Thin Ice

1) What is the meaning of those cryptic numbers used to identify engine oil? 2) A pilot of…

⏱ 7 min read
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Instrument Proficiency Check

There it is, in my logbook in May of 1990…0.5 hours in a Cessna 172 over central Missouri,…

⏱ 4 min read
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Trivia Testers : May Days

1. True or False: In the United States, there are actually more "mayday" calls in the month of…

⏱ 4 min read
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Lost Arts 4 – Using Radar When You Don’t Have It

It is becoming more and more possible to include Radar "overlay" information into everyday general aviation flying as…

⏱ 7 min read
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Slip-Sliding Away

Altitude is your friend, sure, but not when you're too high on final approach because you misjudged your…

⏱ 6 min read
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Trivia Testers : Pop Goes the Weasel

Regarding surplus military jet airplanes and ejection seats, which of the following statements is (are) true? ... You're…

⏱ 5 min read
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The Lost Art of Pilot Reporting

Two weeks ago in North Carolina I was flying en route to teach a flight instructor workshop. It…

⏱ 5 min read
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Trivia Testers : How Old Is the Attic?

When did the Smithsonian Institution first begin collecting flight-related articles? How many active air traffic controllers in the…

⏱ 2 min read
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Trivia Testers : Tides

Why would any predictions of sunrise and sunset times for your local area, whether obtained from your new…

⏱ 6 min read
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Showtime

See and be seen; at night, lights are inexpensive protection. They indicate the relative position of other aircraft,…

⏱ 6 min read
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Lost Arts 3 – The Moving Map

The more I use our airplane's new technology the more I appreciate what it gives us, but I…

⏱ 4 min read
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Night Moves

If you are a VFR-only pilot, you'll soon see that night flight is (or, in a heartbeat, can…

⏱ 6 min read
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Trivia Testers : The Letter E

Pilots rightfully have something of a vested interest in that benchmark of assessing their visual acuity: namely, the…

⏱ 7 min read
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Things You Never Want to Hear From Your Flight Instructor

This is a true story. It concerns the confession of an old friend of mine named Bob. After…

⏱ 4 min read
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FITS and STARTs

Last time we talked about the avionics revolution, the introduction of Primary Flight Display (PFD) and Multifunction Display…

⏱ 7 min read
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Trivia Testers : Joe Cool

When you hear the word "flak" you may think of a famous female singer named Roberta, bulletproof outerwear…

⏱ 4 min read
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Did I Miss the Revolution?

Cirrus Design may have fired the first shot in the personal aviation revolution -- integrating airline-style, CRT flat-screen…

⏱ 6 min read
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Trivia Testers : They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

True or false: When the outside temperature is low, closing the cowl flaps prior to, during, or just…

⏱ 3 min read
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Trivia Testers : Carrying the Torch

If an IFR aircraft which precedes you into the same airspace ceases to communicate with ATC for whatever…

⏱ 3 min read
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Trivia Testers : The First Aeronautical Charts, Part II

As you are about to flare for landing, just when you reduce propeller rpm, you feel a slight…

⏱ 3 min read
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Short Field Challenges

We've had a number of accidents at a nearby airport with a "short" runway. The reason I say…

⏱ 3 min read
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Keeping Up With Today’s Aircraft

Don't look now, but we're living through the beginning of another upheaval, of sorts. Along with the more…

⏱ 6 min read
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Trivia Testers : The First Aeronautical Charts

If you knew only your true airspeed and your angle of drift from the wind, is it possible…

⏱ 5 min read
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We Get Questions

Sometimes it's hard for experienced pilots to remember what it was like to be wide-eyed with the newness…

⏱ 6 min read
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Trivia Testers : An E-Ticket Ride

What was the origin of the now universally applied unit of measuring speed, the knot, in determinations both…

⏱ 6 min read
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Aging Aircraft, Part 2

The average age of the U.S. general aviation fleet is already past 30 years, according to the Federal…

⏱ 6 min read
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Trivia Testers : Polly Want a Cracker?

The FAA requires many aircraft to display N-numbers that are a foot high. Which of the following are…

⏱ 3 min read
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Aging Aircraft

Let's say right now you're in your 20s, and you want to learn to fly. Unless you're among…

⏱ 6 min read
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No

I strongly suspect that I'm just one of the many among the subjugated masses of aviators yearning, figuratively…

⏱ 5 min read
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Lost Arts 2 – Diversion to the Alternate

I have been learning to use the new technology and along the way I have discovered a few…

⏱ 5 min read
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Tales of Dick: Cretin of the Sky

How many times have you found yourself at the airport looking at another pilot and thinking, "Man, that…

⏱ 4 min read
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Trivia Testers : Coming or Going?

A pilot who desires to retain instrument currency may use a first Personal Computer Aviation Training Device (PCATD)…

⏱ 5 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

Lost Arts 1– FSS Communications.

I told you last summer that I would give the new technology an honest try (Trying not to…

⏱ 8 min read
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Trivia Testers : Flying Blind

True or false: a blind person has successfully piloted an aircraft (an airplane) through takeoff, cruise flight, and…

⏱ 6 min read
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Picking A Flight School: Part 141, 0r 61?

Although some tend to view these paths as being somewhat divergent, with the former sometimes seen as the…

⏱ 7 min read
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Trivia Testers : Big Words

Avgas is colored by the use of a dye to indicate its octane and lead level. True or…

⏱ 5 min read
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The Human Factor and Airplanes

The way people work with machinery, or to say it better, the way machines work with people is…

⏱ 3 min read
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Force Times Distance: Articulating Control Surfaces

Until that defining moment which comes to some of us at some point during our training (somewhere between…

⏱ 6 min read
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Trivia Testers : This Just In

On approach to landing at one of several airports in the Detroit metropolitan area, you hear ATIS Information…

⏱ 2 min read
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The Wrong Flaps

We are all trained to prepare a plane for landing. Generically, this includes the reduction of power to…

⏱ 3 min read
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Trivia Testers Off The Grid

The number of hours of flight instruction needed for a flight review, regardless of whether it is through…

⏱ 3 min read
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Following Directions: Ramp Traffic

Marshalling aircraft is one of the most thankless tasks that linemen must perform. Often overlooked during pilot training,…

⏱ 7 min read
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Trivia Testers : Are Two I’s Better Than One?

True or False: A private pilot with an airplane, single-engine land rating can always be guaranteed to receive…

⏱ 3 min read