Click Here To Help Improving This Blog !The weather here over the last two weeks was simply perfect for flying. Blue skies with a few benign clouds in the afternoon, and temperatures reaching the high 20’s (celsius). Air is dry, and it’s not yet the CBs season. Simply cool. Before temperatures get in the 30’s it’s time for the seasonal warning about […]
One of my activities while I was active in Geneva was to introduce practical radio-navigation to students, using the club simulator. This was a preparation for the radio-navigation part of the in-flight syllabus, and this hopefully saved time and money.
Many students were slightly lost with the course selection and the use of the TO / […]
Pilots flying aircrafts with retractable landing gear must know three things: how to extend and retract it, the speed restriction for its operation… and the emergency extension procedure. As any equipment on board, the landing gear extension system can fail, and manufacturers have to plan an emergency system.
On the PA-32 Saratoga, the gear is […]
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know my opinion about distractions in cockpits (if not, read this post on clean cockpit and that one about safety-pilots). On the other hand, I know how cool it can be to listen to your favorite music in flight. There are a couple of options, and […]
I’m not sure of the reason why, but persons planning airports like to put them in challenging places. Look at this Google Earth view of Nice airport. Not only there’s always crosswinds because of sea-breeze, but there are hills in the axis and mountains on the north side.
There is no other option than having all […]
During the breaks of the IFR theory classes, we used to walk by the tarmac of the airfield where the courses were held, and look at planes. One one particular day, an instructor was beside the runway with his hand-held radio. We immediately though “first solo”.
As we got closer, we did not heard the kind […]
Today’s topic is checklist - yes, one more time. My question is rather simple: do you use the standard manufacturer checklists extracted from the AFM / POH, or customized ones ?
This question might sound strange if you’ve always been using manufacturer check-lists. So let me first explain why some pilots don’t use them.
At first, language […]
Winds aloft were not favorable. Our C172 was hardly reaching a groundspeed of 80 kts at FL100. We were VMC, and the flight destination airport was anyway not equipped for an IFR approach. We cancelled IFR, and descended to 5000 feet. The gain in airspeed was immediate.
I was safety-pilot on this flight, and also in […]
Flying requires skills in at least four fields: precise aircraft control - preparation and navigation - communication - decision making.
One could argue endlessly about priorities (read more on that here) and what is more important. Landing properly is fine, but doing it at the worng place because of poor navigation is not exactly brilliant. Knowing […]
Any piece of equipment on board can fail at any time, and all pilots train, to be ready to cope with any failure. This picture has been taken by a passenger while my instructor decided it was time to practice landings with no air-speed indicator.
Years after this training session, I think it’s easy to cope […]
