Night Fright
Today’s Sim Challenge is just an out-and-back. You’ll start on the ramp at Santa Maria, California, (KSMX) and hop over the hills a scant...
Instrument Currency
Instrument pilots know that IMC is challenging and far less forgiving than flying visually. Proficient flying by instruments is a must for us lest...
FAA Says Hand Fly More
Autopilots are great. First and foremost, they’re safety-enhancing devices. They free us from the mundane, but often consuming, task of simply keeping the airplane...
Staying Engaged
Recently I attended a Rusty Pilot session and learned (or re-learned as the case may be) several aspects of our aviating world that laid...
Creative Climb
Low IMC approaches are often the highest-workload procedure for single-pilot, single-engine flights. But departures can be a handful, especially when the weather is between...
What’s the Vis?
Just one day is all it took for the weather at Dalton, Georgia, KDNN, to go from sunny skies to cloudy and grey. But...
Zooming to Zero-Zero
The weather tanked. Fuel is low. Your right arm even aches in homage to Jimmy Stewart’s plight from Strategic Air Command. The 1955 Hollywood...
Return of Skew-T
Two years have passed since we discussed the Skew-T diagram, and it’s time to re-acquaint ourselves with this tool. This is no easy subject,...
High-altitude Training
Last year I got my multi-engine rating as I consider transitioning to a pressured twin. One of my instructors reminded me that I’d need...
Tight On Fuel
That typical one-hour fuel reserve most of us use for personal flying works great, mainly ’cause we rarely need it. In most cases, there’s...
Go Speed Racer
Today's sim challenge is a race from Riverside, CA (KRAL) to Santa Monica, CA (KSMO), with stops along the way at Hawthorne (KHHR) and...
RTC In Florida
Since I’ve turned more pages in my personal calendar, my insurance required recurrent training increased from once in two years to every year. As...