Proficiency

Our pilot training articles are designed to help you improve your flying proficiency. Bone up on beneficial skills as well as the biggest mistakes to avoid as a pilot. Fly right with articles on topics such as dealing with ice and the most dangerous things you can do as a pilot.

August 7, 2019

IFR Descent Hacks
Knowing when you can start to descend on the approach and how low you can go can be tricky. Here are some clever tips to keep you out of the trees.
IFR Descent

I recently hosted a get-together of pilots working on their instrument ratings and instrument instructors for what we jokingly called “IFR Bible Study.” It was an open evening of questions on approach charts and avionics use, lubricated by pizza and beer. My greatest instructional weakness might be exploring the complexity of an answer when a more »
July 11, 2019

Beyond The Helicopter Rating
Learning from and flying with the manufacturer adds an irreplaceable piece to the rotary wing picture.
Robinson Pilot Safety Course

As of December 31, 2018, there were an estimated 32,831 active helicopter pilots in the U.S. The Robinson Helicopter Company has graduated almost that many pilots since the mid ’80s from its four-day Robinson Pilot Safety Course. So after passing my commercial helicopter add-on check ride—and propelled by a robust suggestion from my alma mater, Hillsboro more »
July 1, 2019

Real Pilots Know How To Slip
Why being able to slip a plane should be part of every pilot’s stick and rudder toolkit.
Forward slip

The ancient and honorable art of slipping an aircraft to achieve a desired flight path is an excellent tool to keep in one’s kit-bag of aviation tricks. Once employed regularly to adjust a landing approach, slipping has become an infrequently used maneuver, chiefly because modern airplanes have been fitted with effective wing flaps that can more »
June 6, 2019

Radar Required Approaches Explained
A seemingly academic exercise to figure out why radar is required on an odd approach leads to an understanding of how approaches are designed and why that can matter.
Runway 34 approach, Radar Required

One of my roles in life seems to be “The IFR Answer Guy.” Sometimes, I can toss off the answer as a one-liner between sips of morning coffee. Other times, I’m left scratching my head until I delve deep into the IFR minutia. That’s what happened with what seemed like a simple question about the more »
May 1, 2019

Adding A Helicopter Rating: Check Ride Time
Part three in a special three-part series
Robinson Helicopter

The home stretch of the quest for a helicopter rating add-on to my airplane commercial was the most intensely challenging and rewarding aeronautical experience I have ever had. Fifty-plus years and several thousand hours of flight experience—time that included crop dusting, bush flying in Africa, King Air charter work in the Northeast, advanced glider aerobatics, more »
April 23, 2019

Your Guide To Staying Alive While Flying Low
The joy of flying low is no secret, but the risks are real. Arm yourself with the tools to stay safe.

“If you’re going to fly low,” said my first flight instructor, “you had better know how to do it right.” We then cranked up the old Aeronca Champion and went out for a low-level dual excursion around the countryside. As I found out during his pre-planned route, things looked different from a traffic-pattern perspective. We more »
April 15, 2019

When Training Turns Lethal
The safest kind of flying, statistically at least, has its own hazards. Here’s how to wrap your head around the risk and keep your sunny side up.

When it comes to high-risk flight, we usually think VFR into IMC, low-level maneuvering or run-ins with thunderstorms. Rightly so, too. Those scenarios, along with the ever-present villain “loss of control” lurking nearby, are the riskiest in flying. Training, on the other hand, is, statistically speaking, the safest aviating you can do this side of more »
April 8, 2019

Why Deferred Maintenance Could Cost You Big Bucks
While it feels as though it’s saving money by putting off the repair or fixing it little by little, in the long run, in most cases it drives up the cost.

As an aviation community, we make a lot of noise about getting a good pre-buy inspection and thoroughly reviewing aircraft logbooks before making the leap into aircraft ownership. But can we say the same about encouraging our fellow owner/pilots to be meticulous in maintaining their planes? We do an even worse job of educating new more »
March 6, 2019

Adding A Helicopter Rating: The Good And Bad Of Airplane Muscle Memory
An airplane rating would make learning this machine a breeze. Or so it seemed on the first date
Robinson R22

There is a subtle yet profound difference between the learning of something and the knowing of that thing. You can learn by reading, but you don’t begin to know until you begin to try to do. Part One of this three-part series ended with my first sustained “controlled” hover—nothing steady or rock solid about it, more »
February 21, 2019

Automation In Aircraft Can Kill, When It’s Not Saving Your Life, That Is
There are life-saving lessons for us light airplane flyers from the recent crash of a Boeing 737 Max. What they are and why we need to learn them, now.

There are life-saving lessons for us light airplane flyers from the recent crash of a Boeing 737 Max. What they are and why we need to learn them, now.

February 13, 2019

Drones in our Airspace
There’s no avoiding it. A big part of our future is remotely piloted. What does it mean to GA as a whole and to you and your risk of midair collision?
Drone photography

There’s no avoiding it. A big part of our future is remotely piloted. What does it mean to GA as a whole and to you and your risk of midair collision?
January 24, 2019

Circle-to-Land Life-Saving Tips
For one, fly wider circles, up to a point. Here's how to find the balance.
Cicle-to-Land

For one, fly wider circles, up to a point. Here’s how to find the balance.
January 17, 2019

VFR At Night
There’s no difference between flying in daylight and flying at night—except you can’t see anything.
Flying at night

There’s no difference between flying in daylight and flying at night—except you can’t see anything. So goes the sage advice from my old flight instructor, and he’s essentially right. The airplane doesn’t know or care that its pilot is visually impaired during the hours of darkness. It performs and responds just as it does in more »
January 3, 2019

Adding A Helicopter Rating: Getting To Know The Beast
The first step in learning to fly helicopters, a lifelong dream of one pilot, was learning to hover. But would that first step also be his last?
Robinson R22

I was bewildered during preflight and startup—vaguely familiar but with way more steps that I didn’t fully understand—couldn’t yet correlate. I was sure that once we got going—got airborne—I’d be at home. After all, I’d been flying airplanes for many years. This was my introductory flight lesson for the rotor wing add-on rating to my more »
December 11, 2018

When Pilots Get Vectored Across Final
It’s not supposed to happen, but it does. What to do when the controller forgets about you.
Night alignment with runway

Fly IFR, and you’ll run into this situation soon enough: You’re on a base-leg vector to the localizer or inbound course. This means you’re perpendicular to the final approach course—the course that takes you to the runway—and the next heading you receive from ATC should result in a 20- to 30-degree intercept to that final more »
November 12, 2018

Loss Of Control: Spins Or Spirals?
The latter can look a lot like the former, especially when all there is to see is the aftermath.

The latter can look a lot like the former, especially when all there is to see is the aftermath.
November 1, 2018

Becoming A Creature of Habit (Well, Good Habits, Anyway)
Developing good habits is critical for our flying. So why is it that so few of us are any good at it?

It’s often said that habits get started early in life and stick with us. Unfortunately, that’s true for habits both good and bad. So it’s important to develop good habits early and nurture them while learning how to keep from picking up bad habits along the way. If you’re a pilot, you understand how fundamental more »

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