General Aviation News

Distraction: Tow bars

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I surfed over to the Aviation Safety Reporting System website to research a topic for this column. I typed in “cracked windshield” and waited. A thought popped into my head that reminded me to check out an airplane seller’s website. I scrolled through a plane or two from the inventory when I remembered this was not the reason I was on the internet.

I jumped back over to the ASRS tab. My search had yielded hundreds of “cracked windshield” hits, but they were all reports from pilots flying heavy iron. “Iron” reminded me I needed to fold the clothes in the dryer, which somehow led me to think about what kind of railing we were mulling to put on our refurbished back deck, which got me to thinking about how I always text my wife “on the deck” when I go flying and safely reach my destination. A loud, metallic clanging noise somewhere in my neighborhood reminded me of that one time at my old airline… [Read more…]

Runaway airplane

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I’ve never hand propped an airplane, so I don’t know that thrill. I used to jump-start my manual transmission cars by popping the clutch. It’s not quite the same, but from that I think I can approximate the rush that comes from spinning life into a dead airplane.

In this day and age, should you hand prop an airplane if other conventional methods don’t work in getting the motor running? That’s a solid maybe in my book. The question isn’t can you. It’s should you?

It’s kind of like determining the difference between “legal to fly” and “safe to fly.” [Read more…]

The case for enjoying not flying

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Aeronautical Decision Making is a way of thinking taught to all pilots. It’s a means of maintaining situational awareness throughout all phases of flight.

It teaches pilots to constantly assess the weather around them, the terrain below them, and the condition of their airplane and its engine(s).

It also teaches a pilot to suppress emotions and to be willing at any moment to postpone, abort, delay, or cancel a flight based on a clear-eyed assessment of the safety of flight. [Read more…]

Good judgment comes from bad experience

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I was a freshly minted fixed-wing private pilot with some five total hours of simulated IFR training logged visiting an airport friend at Van Nuys Airport (KVNY) in Southern California.

KVNY was CAVU, but to the west, the marine layer had started a slow creep from the beach in towards Santa Monica Municipal Airport (KSMO). I had to return the tiny, rented Grumman Tiger to KSMO right away. So I bid my friend goodbye after a cursory preflight and taxied to 16L.

Full fuel tanks and my weight combined to put that plane at gross weight, making my climb rate anemic. I vectored toward the Cahuenga Pass. If I couldn’t gain enough altitude in time to cross over the Santa Monica Mountains, I could at least slip through the pass over the 101 Freeway. I flew through the cut and was abeam the Hollywood Bowl when I saw it: The marine layer had gone from creeping to galloping. [Read more…]

Human Factors: Fuel mismanagement

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One of my nephews is really keen on becoming a pilot. I had some time over the summer, so I committed to flying a Piper Twin Comanche up to his hometown, taking him flying over to the coast, and flying back with a lesson involved.

The flight from Wilmington, Delaware, to Cape May, N.J., proceeded without incident. I gave him some straight and level time, much to his delight. We landed and went inside for soft drinks. This was a typical, hot summer day in August, so after the run-up checklist, I leaned the engines for takeoff.

When I applied full power, both motors sputtered. I considered aborting, but with 4,000′ of runway ahead of me and an aircraft now about a mile behind and closing, I instead looked to my throttles. I firewalled them. The engines stopped sputtering and sprang to full power. Thirty-two seconds later, we were airborne and out of there. [Read more…]

Sterile cockpit procedures

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When asked what he thought “sterile cockpit” meant, one pilot told me, “It’s where your maps are all folded and there aren’t any coffee stains on the arm rests or your clothing.”

Not quite what the FAA meant when the sterile cockpit rule (CFR 121.542/135.100) was written back in 1981. The intention was to regulate the actions of commercial pilots and flight crews during critical phases of flight. [Read more…]

Sterile cockpit?

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A training instructor at one of my airlines shared this story: About 30 years ago, a Continental captain and first officer were on approach to Houston Intercontinental Airport (KIAH), at the end of an arduous pairing in which they failed to get along.

The two were arguing so loudly that the flight attendants could hear them through the cockpit door, and so loudly neither pilot heard the gear warning horn. They landed the DC-9 gear up. [Read more…]

Check yourself before you wreck yourself

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IMSAFE and PAVE are two of the best tools the FAA has given to general aviation in decades.

IMSAFE stands for Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue and Emotion (or Eating).

PAVE refers to Pilot, Aircraft, EnVironment and External pressures.

Pilots often mention them together in incident reports submitted to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. They tend to cite those checklists either to rule out human factors or to highlight human factors contributing to their incidents. [Read more…]

Crosswind landings: Worth the price to practice

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Santa Ana winds tracking out of the northeast make for interesting takeoffs and landings at Santa Monica Airport (KSMO) in Southern California. Prevailing winds there are normally out of the southwest, so Runway 21 is almost always in use. Runway 3 is rarely used.

One winter day, the Santa Anas came howling down into the LA Basin from the north, somewhere in the 340° to 355° range. Not just straight-line winds either — big gusts that kept pilots on the ground grounded.

It was dangerous. All of us in the FBO knew it the moment we saw a Learjet go around, twice. My commercial instructor flying a Cessna 172 still needed to land, though, due to low fuel. [Read more…]

Eche la Culpa

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Presidential TFRs are complicated.

These flight restrictions are temporary and, often, the boundaries keep moving. Furthermore, they can occur without warning anytime a president decides to travel. They are kind of like pop-up summer thunderstorms. [Read more…]

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