Changing of the Guard
You’re flying along, listening to a controller issue instructions to many aircraft. From one second to the next, you suddenly start hearing a different...
Who’s On First?
It was an IMC day with plenty of arrivals and departures taxing out. For a VFR tower like ours, IMC days are the easiest...
First Come, First Served
Most pilots have heard at some point that ATC separates aircraft on a first come, first served (FCFS) basis, but have experienced the opposite....
Your Instructor Lied
Whether it’s a result of faulty instruction or an accumulation of bad habits over time, I often see pilots who come in for a...
The Honorable Pilot
Recently I got a request from an instrument student. He needed help fielding the inevitable systems and scenario-based questions about the G1000’s many failure...
Revisiting RAIM
Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring is a mouthful, but it's descriptive. RAIM independently assesses the integrity of positions reported by a GPS receiver.RAIM is essential...
Threading Needles
It’s not fun trying to make a left turn out of my neighborhood. It exits onto a busy, six-lane road. There's no traffic light,...
When Ya Gotta Circle
It's a cloudy, breezy day, and you're flying the family from northern Iowa to Chanute in southeastern Kansas. Other than a headwind and a...
Increased Workload
Since starting in 1984, I’ve logged over 1800 hours in more than 45 aircraft types. As much of this has been in the past...
Too Old To Fly?
For most of us, flying is a passion we absolutely do not want to give up. This article will discuss clues on when it...
Extending the Glide
Few of us will never need a 180-degree turn back to a runway following a power failure. But, if you ever do, here is...
Unpleasant Surprises
When I was learning to fly, my instructor would say, “A good flight comes from good information.”Surprises in the cockpit aren’t generally good things....