Tailwheel airplanes inspire passion at a level probably unmatched in any other segment of the flying community. It’s reflected in the abundance of associated cliches, including “You aren’t a real pilot unless you fly tailwheel.” The airplanes can be incredibly fun and challenging to um, well—land. The dirty secret about tailwheel pilots is that while […]
Here’s an unfortunate scenario. You’re sliding down a visual approach at dusk with the speed nailed, the wind calm and bright LEDs lighting up the pavement. You settle into the flare and hit hard enough to bounce back in the air where the oscillations begin. Despite your thousands of flight hours, your insurer isn’t impressed […]
REDBIRD SIM FIELD REPORT I thought you would like a field report on my recent purchase of a Redbird TD2 flight simulator. I fly a G36 Bonanza with Garmin G1000 NXi integrated avionics. The total cost of the setup delivered to me in Orientat, North Carolina, was $15,635. I bought the expanded screens, table and […]
An amusing and depressing part of the job here at the magazine is scouring the accident reports for the safety data we assemble in the Used Aircraft Guide. If we didn’t laugh, we’d cry. There is some horrific and fascinating stuff, all of it making me wish I had gone to work for the NTSB. […]
Just over a year ago, the NTSB introduced a new accident database search engine called CAROL (Case Analysis and Reporting Online). For anyone seeking an aircraft accident report for an accident that occurred on or after Jan. 1, 2008, CAROL became the required search engine. The user-friendly search engine that I’d used with great success […]
More than a supplier of equipment for aviators, Sporty’s (www.sportys.com) has long had a significant presence in the flight training world, including its own flight school, Sporty’s Academy. Last October, Sporty’s announced an across the board upgrade for its more than 20 aviation courses. We’ve used its courses to upgrade our skills as we’ll as […]
We’re good pilots—by and large. Getting our certificates and ratings wasn’t easy. Face it, we sweat blood training to master the skills, knowledge and judgment needed to cause an inanimate object to rise into an often unforgiving sky and return to the planet not only safely, but with some degree of panache. In the process […]
As aviators, we see no irony in being sustained aloft by an ongoing series of violent explosions of a volatile chemical mixture generating a hearing-damaging roar that calms us to the point of somnolence. Yet when that soothing roar ceases, without our command, and the resulting silence brings us to a level of terrified hypervigilance […]
Multi-engine airplanes offer more speed, more payload, more sophistication, and to many, a perceived increase in safety. Face it: In a single, if you lose an engine your options are limited to a forced landing. In a piston twin, that second engine typically won’t give you much (or any) climb and might not even be […]
Venture on an aircraft refurbishment project—large or small—and there’s a good chance you’ll be replacing plastic parts. This is an important market because the majority of aging aircraft are decked out in old, faded, cracked and brittle plastic. Sun, vibration, temperature fluctuations and general wear and tear quickly take a toll on plastic components. The […]
A pilot involved in an aircraft accident must immediately notify the NTSB. By statute, the NTSB is required to investigate all aircraft accidents. No big deal, we learned that in private pilot ground school. However, there is a question that has to be answered: Is the event really an accident? If it’s not, there’s no […]
Despite our determination to do better, we pilots are human. Frustratingly, because of that we make mistakes. Fortunately, most of those mistakes damage only our self-image as steely-eyed superior beings although from time to time they result in damage to our airplanes. We’ve been trained to keep an aircraft right side up and on the […]
