Good article, I hope it gets the attention it deserves.

Friends ask me how I can remember dozens of peoples phone numbers without looking them up. Easy, I never use speed dial!

Saw the orange bob wizz over me.. You can just see the balls in the photo. The wx was good enough that seeing where everything was was no problem, but going under was still better that over. It was planned and briefed! http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo252/PilotDAR/Aircraft/IMG_4176_zps3af962f5....

Not criticizing the pilot, or delving too far into the "use of checklist" subject, I do see an aspect of "being in the groove", which is not always a good thing. If you do the same thing with the same machine time after time, the "different thing one day" can be the threat to safety. Need it be? A G...

How long does it take you to be comfortable flying in less than ideal weather? I don't want to push the weather now as a student but maybe I have to do so after I become a commercial pilot... Getting comfortable in slightly less good weather requires a combination of feeling comfortable in the plan...

The thing is that without some people risking their lives and paying the price by dying we would not be where we are. There would be nothing to fly on Yes, people have died in planes. I've picked a couple of them up afterwords. But, I can assure you that many, many planes, and operations, have been...

Craziness is an important ingredient of life... and flying

....May be why Transatlantic insurance is hard to get, and the occasional C 150 does not make it home from the east, at night.

In no part of my 39 years of flying, has craziness been an important ingredient.

I wouldn't mind rolling anything into anything. And I wouldn't really mind going for a VFR flight either. But I see that at best it will take days and weeks of waiting, and even if it happens it will not really bring me any sense of accomplishment. At worst I'll die but so is the worst case for IFR...

Yes, you made the right decision. Don't let the school tell you otherwise. With more experience, in time, you might fell a little more comfort in flying in light snow, but that only comes with experience and confidence. The fact that another pilot "would have flown through" does not make you wrong f...

Single engined across the north Atlantic is kinda like the convenience store clerk who pulls a gun from behind the counter, to fend off a robber. Sometimes it works, and maybe the clerk looks like a hero. Sometimes the clerk gets killed. And really the clerk's skill or action play only a small role ...

And just for your amusement, a container costs $4450 for 20', or $5980 for 40' UK to Toronto. I bought a 23 foot long airplane in England, and I'm trying to decide if I should cut or derivet a joint in the fuselage to save $1500. My friends took a 182 amphib across last August, and although filed IF...

Jim, former for a about a decade now, for the same reasons, and with the same expectations for change. When I see the change, and it has substance and traction, I will happily support the new COPA

As well as a stick shaker to indicate to the pilot the approaching stall Well, I guess that's something. I have reservations though, supplemental systems seem occasionally inadequate to prevent stall spin events in "larger" aircraft, in "airport" environments, and with crews trained to recognize an...

Smaller diameter bolts would stretch much too much with the gyroscopic forces which act out of plane to the prop rotation. As the bolts must be long for their diameter to reach through the prop and maybe spacer, larger diameter bolts are much more stretch resistant. And, resistance to fatigue, becau...

That ATOL is slick! It looks like it ticks all the boxes! Yes, docking is greatly complicated with flying boats, that is the downside of the arrangement. The end corner of the dock looks really good. The trick is that they'll paddle from the pilot's seat really easily, and you can still use the wate...

I understand that the Seawind has been challenged in very slow speed flight, with ineffective rudder, making spin resistance/recovery. Slowspeed control and spin resistance will be even more important for a flying boat, as it is more likely to be taken into "smaller" places with less conventional ap...

i guess its hard to accept that you need to be on the ground asap.

Yes, that's why shutting down the single engine, when in range of a suitable forced landing area, can be a good thing, it makes the part about accepting being on the ground ASAP really easy to accept!

Now in what world is it a good idea to shut down the engine? He screwed up in thinking that his engine was worth more than his life and that is not OK. You always sacrifice the engine. In my world preventativly shutting the engine down has worked out well several times. Now I'm not the captain of a...

It probably can't be stressed enough that if you want to be good at anything, a key is to start young. Absolutely! I was lucky enough to fly years before I drove. Two things about learning later in life appear to me to be that a) your head is thicker when you're older, so the learning you need does...

I do think if people want to go fly more and they have the opportunity, the cause of GA isn't served by trying to stop them.

I totally agree.

I spent the early part of my PPL career being a poster child for why non instructor flight instruction is probably not a great idea. Between age 14 and 16 I flew a lot of "co pilot" with a very kind and giving fellow, who'd recently earned his PPL and night endorsement, and bought a 150. I probably ...