Enjoy pilot stories? Our Pilot Talk section is full of informative and entertaining flying tales from accomplished pilot authors.
What happened that led an Airline Transport Pilot with an estimated 12,100 hours of flying time to allow an instrument approach to go so frightfully wrong that it cost his life and the lives of his six passengers? The NTSB doesn’t pin it on any one thing. Rather, as is so often the case, the more »
Comfort/noun: A state of physical ease and freedom from pain or constraint. The easing or alleviation of a person’s feelings of grief or distress. Rochester, New York, on the south shore of Lake Ontario is infamous for frigid cold and snow-packed winters. Back in the day, I was a newlywed just back from two years more »
Back in the day, vertical guidance on final approach was reserved for the Cadillac approaches, which almost always meant an ILS. Airports whose tax base or FAA grant status didn’t cut it were stuck with non-precision approaches. Without vertical guidance, we’d cross a fix and step down to the next altitude, fix after fix, until more »
My morning started on the campus of the University of Louisiana. The “Home of the Ragin’ Cajuns” is known for its culture, cuisine, Southern hospitality and unique dialect of the French language. There was nowhere else I desired to be living while pursuing my degree. An online company would email me a daily inspirational quotation more »
First woman to receive a pilot’s license, worldwide: Raymonde de Laroche, March 8, 1910 (France) Other aviation accomplishments: women’s altitude (12,869 feet, 15,700 feet) and distance (201 miles) records Death: killed co-piloting a test flight, July 18, 1919 First woman to receive a pilot’s license, U.S.: Harriet Quimby, August 1, 1911 Previous career: Journalist/writer Quimby’s more »
When I was a kid, a few years back, I always considered myself lucky to be growing up a government brat. My father was an inspector with the Department of Justice, and we moved around quite a bit. (Standard joke in the family: “My dad has been in and out of jail for 30 years.”) more »
Piper PA23 Aztec 1 Uninjured Fremont, Ohio The pilot reported that, during approach in visual meteorological conditions, he referenced the RNAV instrument approach for the runway to assist with vertical guidance “as [there] is no VASI [visual approach slope indicator]” for that runway. He added that he thought he was high enough as he crossed more »
If you choose to live in a tropical or sub-tropical climate, you have to be aware of the threat of hurricanes. Like an in-flight emergency, it may never happen, but if you are prepared, you increase the chances of survival for you and your passengers. Hurricanes are nothing to be cavalier or blasé about. This more »
The Myth While flying is something that creatures other than people have been doing for millions of years, we’ve only been actively exploring this realm for around 200 years and flying heavier than air machines for just over a century. But just as we know how gravity behaves and how to make good use of more »
We can only wonder what must have been going on in the mind of the pilot of a Beech A36TC Bonanza as it became increasingly difficult for him to handle the control yoke so the airplane was level enough to avoid stalling or diving. It was a battle he’d eventually lose, with the plane crashing more »
“Are you willing to assist in defending a pilot charged with operating an aircraft while drunk?” the attorney asked shortly into our first call. As a pilot, an instructor and an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE), this question gave me a little pause. How could I justify defending a pilot who was under the influence more »
I almost saw a plane crash. Sadly, I don’t mean to say that there was almost a plane crash. There really was a plane crash. I almost saw it happen. I did see its aftermath from a distance. On November 9, 2015, my crew was on a ground turn in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Up until more »
Like life, flying delivers roiling mixtures of expectations vs. outcomes that drive and nurture learning, improving, failing, winning, hoping, striving, spiced all too rarely with exhilaratingly triumphant moments. And some of those triumphant moments, while unfolding, can pass through terrifying on their way to exhilarating. During my first year flying Part 135 charter in King more »
Sometimes lessons learned about flying are painful and expensive. Other times, you get lucky. Back when I bought my first airplane, I was convinced I’d become a tailwheel expert overnight. I’d learned to fly because I was in love with the sky, and with one airplane in particular, the Globe Swift, a low-wing, retractable taildragger, more »
Nickname of first plane capable of flight: Flyer Nickname of first successful seaplane: Hydravion Three planes with unofficial nickname of “Aluminum Overcast:” Convair B-36; Lockheed C-5 Galaxy; Douglas C-124 Globemaster Nickname of EAA’s Boeing B-17: Aluminum Overcast Nickname of Boeing B-17: Flying Fortress Official nickname of Convair B-36: Peacemaker B-36 Purpose: Heavy bomber (including nukes) more »
On September 9, 2013, Alan Foster landed in the southeast village of Yakutat on the final leg of an almost 4,000-mile-long journey that began when he picked up his recently purchased PA-32-360 in Atlanta. Foster had over 9,000 hours of flight time and had flown for a variety of Alaskan air taxis and commuters. He more »
Regular readers may recall that I’ve logged my share of hours over various bodies of water, mostly the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and several others you may never have heard of. I often hadn’t heard of them, either, until someone hired me to fly across more »
I sat on the ramp in my Extra 260 in Tehachapi, holding short of Runway 08, when my fuel tank imploded. While taxiing out, I decided to transfer fuel from my rear auxiliary fuel tank to my main aux tank. I might need the fuel and couldn’t burn right from the rear aux tank; it more »