Pilots don’t agree on much, but if you were to ask what are the scariest things that could potentially occur in an airplane you will almost universally get this answer: Fire, Structural Failure, and Midair (in no particular order). Not that we sit around trembling in fear of such things, but when the thought wafts…

We are going to explore a few commonsense ways to stay out of trouble out there. The headline is a bit of a “grabber”, the point remains that flying is unforgiving. It can be extremely safe, but we can’t take that for granted. Keep flying the airplane. This is a huge issue. Flying in this…

Checklist Discipline  (Update) Fellow pilot and friend Mike Wojcik contributed to this piece. See his work below regarding a checklist he developed for the Tecnam. Ever thought about your checklist? I mean really thought about it? It is much more than a faded and tattered occupier of precious cockpit real estate. It is one of…

Handling an Aircraft Emergency Few of us really know how we’ll react in a true emergency. Thankfully, they are extremely rare in our modern GA airplanes. But will you be prepared when that day comes? The day that something goes terribly wrong and it’s completely up to you to save yourself and your passengers. Having…

Flying with Finesse I love it when we refer to flying as art. It distills away all the sorid technical details and leaves us with the one thing that keeps us coming back, our physical connection with the flying machine. This connection should be a major concern for us as pilots. Our handling of the…

Complacency: The Silent Killer Let’s face facts, flying can be risky. In spite of statistics that say flying is safer than driving – which are arguable, there are elements of flying that are swiftly unforgiving. We have done well in recent decades to enhance accident rates in general aviation, but one theme remains; people are…

Misadventures of a C-172 Flight As a starving flight instructor working my tail off to make ends meet, I did some ‘interesting’ flying. (Editors note: no specific dates, locations, or names are used in this story to protect me from any bad-guys that were on the receiving end of this operation)

On Friday, October 5th, two Piper aircraft collided in the skies over Arizona. At least one of the aircraft was on an IFR training flight. As you view the pictures you’ll realize how miraculous it was that no one was injured. One aircraft made it into Gila River airport and the other landed on a…