Learn to Fly

Insider Series

LAW

ADs: Pay Now Or Pay Later

Airplane owners know the dread -- that Number 10 envelope in the mail from the Federal Aviation Administration.…

⏱ 5 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
WEATHER

The Quickening

Winter's coming (or here), and that means ice. If you were merrily motoring along and suddenly noticed ice…

⏱ 5 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
WEATHER

Headwinds — Watch Em’ or Pay

If you've read my work here, you know that I respect Mother Nature. She is the force that…

⏱ 3 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

No

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

⏱ 5 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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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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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

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
CONTINUING EDUCATON

The Trusty Electrolux

All this talk about proficiency: we never seem to give it a rest, do we? For example, let's…

⏱ 5 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

Trivia Testers : Not the First

In July 2001, 13-year old Cody Clawson was hiking with his Boy Scout troop in Yellowstone National Park,…

⏱ 4 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

No Exit

I don't know if it was Chuck Yeager, Tom Wolfe, or anyone else in particular that should earn…

⏱ 7 min read
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All For The Want Of…

LIFE CAN BE HARD AS A PILOT. Take Bob for example -- he had a problem. It was…

⏱ 3 min read
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Trivia Testers : Down and Around

From the North Pole, one can only go southward. Not being the trusting type, rather than following the…

⏱ 5 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

The Point of Diversion (POD) – 1

My previous series of articles was written to help pilots stay "ahead" of the airplane, but if you…

⏱ 3 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

Trivia Testers : Sixteen Candles

The absolutely and undeniably first woman pilot in the whole world was...

⏱ 3 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

Movin’ On Up (Part II)

Moving up to larger, more capable, aircraft can be intimidating, but airplanes are airplanes and some simple truths…

⏱ 4 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

Trivia Testers : Pride Goeth Before a Fall

Two pilots walk into the waiting room of an Aviation Medical Examiner to renew the medical certificates that…

⏱ 5 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

Trying not to be an “Old-Fogey”

I'm really not trying to be an old-fogey about this, but I guess I can't help myself. My…

⏱ 4 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

Movin’ On Up

Learning to fly is something very few people ever do, and we all take pride in our own…

⏱ 4 min read
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Stay Ahead Of The Airplane — Avoiding The Self Inflicted Wound

Pilots have enough problems in the dynamic flight environment without making things worse on themselves. But sometimes pilots…

⏱ 4 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

Trivia Testers : Status Symbols

After an aircraft experiencing an emergency, what four types of aircraft or situations come next, on the pecking…

⏱ 6 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

Trivia Testers : We have clearance, Clarence!

While en route at 4000 feet, ATC issues you the following advisory: "Flock of small birds, twelve o'clock,…

⏱ 7 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

Stay Ahead Of The Airplane — Prioritize

Pilots are confronted with an inflow of information (radio communications, spotting other traffic, flight and engine instruments, etc.)…

⏱ 2 min read
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Trivia Testers : Splitting Hairs

An airplane with leaky fuel caps is sitting out in the rain. How long might it take each…

⏱ 5 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

Trivia Testers : Parched

Of the following early airmail pilots, who doesn't belong? Charles Lindbergh, Elrey Jeppesen, Leonard Brooke Hyde-Pearson, or George…

⏱ 5 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

How to Stay Ahead of an Airplane

Where ever you are - be there! This is a direct quote from Mr. Joel Smith who is…

⏱ 3 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

Trivia Testers : Strength in Numbers

Just as the greater relative proportion of one substance introduced into another can improve the effectiveness of a…

⏱ 4 min read
CONTINUING EDUCATON

Summer School (Part 3): What We Learn

In-Flight! was a weeklong summer workshop designed to show minority high school students what it was like to…

⏱ 3 min read