What effect does a tailwind have on your takeoff performance? More than you might think. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released an unusually detailed Preliminary Report on the crash of a turbocharged piston airplane: The aircraft impacted terrain shortly after takeoff from Stevensville Airport (32S), Stevensville, Montana. The private pilot and his passenger received Read More
Confirmation bias can lead pilots to act on their belief of what is happening, despite evidence that the opposite is occurring Say you are solo in a very familiar aircraft, approaching a busy but familiar airport. The tower controller clears you to land on Runway 20L at Orange County/John Wayne Airport (KSNA), the shorter and Read More
Focus the same amount of care and attention to a low-visibility departure as you do an instrument approach. From an NTSB Preliminary Report: A Cessna Citation 525 (CJ4) was destroyed in a collision with Lake Erie shortly after takeoff from runway 24R at the Burke Lakefront Airport (BKL), Cleveland, Ohio. The pilot and five passengers Read More
The real meaning behind the words “Maintenance,” “Inspection” and “Repair.” Three Airworthiness Responsibilities Maintenance is something actively done to maintain airworthiness before something breaks. Maintenance cannot usually be put off until the next annual inspection (although some maintenance functions are routinely re-done as part of an annual). Inspection is done to confirm that the maintenance Read More
300 feet to go…hand on the throttles (you’re going to have to pull them back if you see the runway, or push them forward if you don’t). 200 to go…localizer centered, glideslope centered. 100 to go…still nothing but gray outside. Missed approach point: no runway environment in sight, miss the approach…. You’ve now entered what is Read More