May 4, 2017

Printed Planes

While your next plane won’t be 3D-printed (we think), plenty of parts will be soon, thanks to huge advances in additive manufacturing

Let’s get one thing straight right from the start: You cannot have your next plane printed for you. Not now, not soon, probably not ever. It’s a beautiful dream, to be sure, like the Willy Wonka invention that let kids reach into a television screen and pull out a chocolate bar. In this case, you’d more »

May 3, 2017

This Is Your Captain Speaking

The PA system is an opportunity to think thoughtfully about the information we share with those who travel with us

If you made a list of the audible wonders of the ancient world, the theater of Epidaurus, on the Argolid Peninsula of Greece, would probably come first. Even today spellbound audiences of around 14,000, wherever they’re seated, can easily hear the unamplified voices of actors. The science behind all this was a mystery until a more »

May 2, 2017

Summer Weather

Every season has its challenges for pilots. Learn how to prepare for the heat and humidity, warm fronts and thunderstorms, to make summer flying a breeze.

When I think about summer, I think of long, lean days, blue water, tan legs, iced tea. I can survive winter, but it’s really about paying my dues until my favorite season returns. Summer means flying west into a golden sun or heading home trying to beat the darkness so I can sleep in my more »

April 27, 2017

All Joy

Curt Brickman is 57 years old. When I meet him, he’s wearing jeans, hiking shoes and a dark blue jacket. His cap says “Cold War Veteran.” He wears an Army pin in his lapel and sunglasses over his prescription glasses. Ten years in the service, he tells me. Here, I think, is a guy who’s more »

April 26, 2017

Lessons Learned: The 100-Hour Mistake

…and what it took to get there

Growing up on a dairy farm planted firmly in Vermont’s Champlain Valley, I spent many an hour outside watching the local crop duster seeding and fertilizing the fields. Visions of the feeling, the smell and the thought of flying mere feet above the rolling fields danced in my head as I procrastinated completing my childhood more »

April 20, 2017

Plane Facts: Thunderstorms

Fun and frightening facts about thunderstorms

Average yearly cost of severe TS damage, U.S.: $10 billion Number of TS worldwide/year: 16 million Average number of TS in progress at any given time, worldwide: 2,000 Number of TS U.S./year: ~100,000 Most likely time of year: Spring/Summer Most likely time of day, Gulf Coast, Southeastern and Western States: Afternoon Most likely time of day, Plains States: Late afternoon/Night State with more »

April 17, 2017

Accident Briefs: April 2017

Reports from the NTSB

Beech G35 2 Fatal The commercial-rated pilot and passenger (who owned the airplane) were conducting a cross-country business flight. Several witnesses reported observing the accident airplane overhead; one witness stated that the engine made a “sputtering” sound like it was running out of gas. She stated that the airplane was flying north and then turned more »

April 14, 2017

An Out Of The Box

While pilots can’t have contingencies for every single flight scenario, try to avoid being in a position where there’s no out left to take

Even if you’re a cool hand at the poker table, or in the cockpit, it’s always nice to have an ace up your sleeve. No pilot can have a contingency for every conceivable flight scenario, but having an “out” tips the odds to keep you flush because a bluff isn’t an option. If you’re flying more »

April 10, 2017

Flying In Three Dimensions

Flying should be in all three dimensions, not just two

When I was a kid and could only dream about being unhinged from Earth, I assumed all airplanes could fly in three, full dimensions. Every pilot knows that’s the definition of flying, but only to a limited extent. As a government brat living in a suburb of Washington D.C., I used to ride my bike more »

March 30, 2017

What’s In Your Flight Bag?

Flight bags and their contents are supremely personal—and can reveal a lot about a pilot

“Everybody’s gotta have a little place for their stuff. That’s all life is about. Trying to find a place for your stuff.” — George Carlin Stuff—we’ve all got it. We take it with us, everywhere. We take bags of it to work, to play, overnight, from room to room. We’ve got old stuff and new stuff. more »

March 29, 2017

Down And Locked

A pilot’s scrape with disaster

“Autopilot-Autopilot” sounded through the cockpit speakers as First Officer John DePaola assumed manual control of the Embraer 135 regional jet. His left hand palmed the white-knobbed thrust levers; his right encircled the ram’s-horn-shaped control yoke. The 37-seat aircraft sliced through the placid air. American Eagle flight 4539 had departed Toronto at 7 a.m. Boston’s suburbs more »

March 28, 2017

Mixed Messages On Midairs

The NTSB puts the focus on midairs, but does it have the solution to the problem?

When it comes to keeping airplanes from bumping into each other, it still looks as if one of the best things we have going for us is the “big sky” concept. Put simply, there’s such a vast amount of airspace, and aircraft so often fly random routes, that the odds that our aircraft will not more »

March 23, 2017

Ravens

Just like a bird

I’ve been fascinated by the flight of birds since I was a child. I’m hardly the first young person to turn his eye to the sky and never look down again. For a thousand years, birds have inspired people to dream of human flight and, later, just over a hundred years ago, to finally build more »

March 22, 2017

Lessons Learned: Home Before Dark

A sacred mission for a pilot and his Cessna 185 in Venezuela

8:35 a.m. Paul calls us on our shortwave radio in Puerto Ayacucho, Venezuela. “Uncle Ed just died here in Caracas, and Aunt Irma tells us that he wanted to be buried in TT. Can you come pick him up?” I hesitate. Venezuelan law says Ed must be buried within 24 hours, so it has to more »

March 16, 2017

Plane Facts: Propellers

Fun facts about propellers

First manmade aerial propellers: China, c. 500 BCE, child’s toy Leonardo da Vinci airscrew designs: c. 1480 First coaxial helicopter blade design: Mikhail Lomonosov, 1754 Year of first airborne propeller use: 1784 Aircraft it was used in: a balloon Means of power: hand-cranking Early experimenter with metal prop blades: Sir George Cayley, c. 1790 First practical aircraft propeller design: Wright Brothers Their discovery: the more »

March 9, 2017

Accident Briefs: March 2017

Reports from the NTSB

Rainbow SkyReach BushCat 2 Uninjured The pilot reported that he took off in visual meteorological conditions after being weathered in for two days. He further reported that while en route to the destination, he encountered deteriorating weather conditions and opted to land at a nearby field to allow the weather to pass. The pilot reported more »

March 8, 2017

Flying The Presidential TFR

Aviate, navigate, communicate? Well, yes, but if you plan to penetrate a Presidential TFR, those happen only after find, phone, copy, file.

Find the NOTAM. Phone TSA at least 24 hours in advance. Copy your confirmation number. File a flight plan, possibly with an intermediate stop. The milk run for Mrs. Levinson and me is between KBED, in the Boston suburbs where we live most of the year, and KMVY on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, where more »

March 6, 2017

The Art Of Dragging Tail

Don’t admit to loving taildraggers unless you want to be regarded as an aviation traditionalist

Okay, I admit it. I was introduced to flying in taildraggers. Almost by definition, that dates me to the middle of the last century. Today, there are a diminishing number of conventional-gear airplanes still in production, most targeted at the bush plane or aerobatics markets. When it came time to go shopping for that first more »

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