The 12th annual Redbird Migration flight training conference was cutting edge, with new content throughout, including a new conference track for an emerging segment of the flight training industry: K-12 educators in STEM and Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.
Questions from the Cockpit: What’s so mean about mean sea level?
Cassandra, working on her Sport Pilot ticket on the Florida coast, writes: I’ve just started my flight training, and have learned about the two different ways that altitude is expressed: AGL and MSL. Above Ground Level is self-explanatory, but I’m having a harder time wrapping my head around Mean Sea Level. I mean, I get that it’s the altitude above sea level, but what’s the “mean” all about?
Human Factors: No gentleman
In a strange case of life imitating art, an Oregon pilot crashes into the ocean after learning he has Stage 4 cancer. Can we learn anything from this crash?
Questions from the Cockpit: ADM for Dummies
The dad of an airline-bound student pilot writes: I know I probably shouldn’t, but I find myself reading about pretty much every small airplane crash online, and much of the time I find myself shaking my head and asking myself, “What was the pilot thinking?” So that’s my question: Don’t they teach pilots to think in flight school? Or is it all just about how to operate the controls?
Human Factors: Batten down the hatches…and all the other stuff too
This accident is a good reminder that while loose lips sink ships, it’s loose items in the cockpit that can wreak havoc with flight controls.
Paying for pilots
How does a public charter school manage to offer private pilot certificates — for free — to any student who wants one? It all comes down to a unique funding system for schools in New Mexico.
Questions from the Cockpit: Who was first?
Lucas, a private pilot from Connecticut, writes: “There seems to be some disagreement here at the hangar. Was the Cirrus the first airplane with a full-frame parachute?”
Human Factors: Say it out loud
In his report on the gear-up accident to the NTSB, the pilot said that he was alone in the airplane and “I did not state my GUMPS checks out loud,” adding that he normally “religiously” says a minimum of two out loud and sometimes three.
Questions from the Cockpit: Are there decelerated stalls?
Megan, a commercial pilot candidate in Arizona, writes: I’ve just been introduced to accelerated stalls, and it made me wonder if there is such a thing as a decelerated stall. I checked my training books and couldn’t find anything, and when I checked in with Uncle Google, all I got was stuff about car engines stalling when decelerating. I asked my flight instructor and he said, “I don’t know, but I know who would know…”