Airplanes can be like an old hunting dog – very much liked and appreciated, but after years of faithful service, they regrettably need to be “put down.” This was recently the case with our old Lear 35. Knowing it was to be our Lear 35’s last trip before its final flight to the “vet’s office,” Read More
Operators of the Cessna Citation Excel and XLS (CE560XL) will soon have a great opportunity to upgrade their airplanes with the latest avionics technology. Garmin is in the final stages of certification of the G5000 avionics suite for the Excel and XLS, which they expect to be completed in Q1 of 2019. The Excel, with Read More
Step I: Get a Progressive Check One of the biggest single factors that can make the difference between a positive, efficient recurrent training experience, versus one that merely “checks the boxes” at a cost of high stress and minimal learning, is if the required pilot in command proficiency check (PPC) is done as a progressive Read More
It was a hot and dry day near the banks of the Columbia River in Eastern Washington. The lawn sprinklers were creating a distracting fine mist with mini-rainbows as I made an approach to the helicopter’s designated grass landing area. I had another pilot onboard and a group of field workers also watching, so I Read More
The recent, fatal crash of a vintage military trainer provides valuable lessons for pilots of twin and turbine airplanes as well. The NTSB reports: …a North American SNJ-5 airplane impacted terrain following a loss of control during initial climb after takeoff from runway 13R at Kingsville Naval Air Station (NQI), Kingsville, Texas. The pilot and Read More