Click Here To Help Improving This Blog !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 […]
There are no elegant, or smart aviation accidents. Loosing someone is always tragic, whatever the circumstances. I don’t want to judge anybody, my aim is simply to highlight how quick and silly accidents can be.
A KingAir 200 was back from a short test flight after maintenance. The pilot reported some noises, and the mechanic decided […]
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 […]
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 […]
One of the latest equipment introduced in light aircrafts is the ballistic parachute. The principle is quite simple: when everything else fails, deploy the chute and wait for the impact with the planet. Cirrus has been amongst the first manufacturers offering it, but it will also be an option on the Cessna Skycatcher and the […]
It’s night VFR season again ! Even where airports close for private traffic at 10 or even 8pm, the shorter days allow for enough night time to exerise our night VFR privileges.
My night experience is not huge as you can see in my logbook. I trained for the night VFR rating mostly because it is […]
