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Excellent Training Resource for Mountain Flying
A great online resource for Mountain FlyingI frequently get e-mails asking for recommendations on the best books, online training and videos for the topic of mountain flying. Usually, whenever I schedule a student for the training they also ask… "Should I read anything before I come?" In terms of books, Sparky Emerson has a couple […]
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Automation Overload
Can using too much automation be a bad thing? In recent weeks I’ve had the opportunity to go Cirrus checkout, and then go though Cirrus Standardized Instructor (CSIP)training with another flight instructor. On a couple flights I was a back seat observer watching the other instructor being checked out and the instructing instructor go through […]
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1977 Tenerife Spain Accident
Before there were proper communications structure and terminology. On March 27th, 1977 a chain of events occurred that resulted in gross misunderstandings between an air traffic controller and the flight crew of a 747. This miscommunication and misunderstanding ultimately resulted in the Captain of the 747 starting his take-off run when he was not cleared […]
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Mountain Flying Instruction
Mountain Flying Course in the Heart of the Colorado Rockies Have you ever wanted to venture into the mountains with your airplane, but worried that you may not be ready for the challenge? If you want to fly in the mountains, the best idea is to get some mountain flight instruction from a qualified flight […]
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Perpetuating Aerodynamic Myth
An interesting piece of news reporting from the Denver Post. A couple days ago the Denver Post printed a story about a Plane Crash near Denver. The following is an excerpt from that article, which a link to has been provided at the bottom of this post. "Jay Loar, an Erie resident who was goose […]
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CRM is about more than just being nice!
The ingredients of good Crew Resource Management If there could ever be a major aviation accident that could be considered humorous, Continental Airlines flight 1943 would definitely be the one. In February of 1996, a Douglass DC-9 landed in Houston Texas with the wheels still retracted. All passengers escaped the aircraft without injury. This accident illustrates […]
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Humans Learn From Mistakes
Resolving problems of hazardous attitudes or behavior. I think one of the greatest fallibilities of humans is that we really only learn from mistakes. That is to say, in very few instances to we anticipate problems well in advance of the first occurrence of a given problem occurring. The manner in which we learn; therefore, […]
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Flight Training Requirements
How long does it take to learn to fly? Probably one of the most common reasons people don’t learn to fly is because they don’t understand the difficulty, costs or time commitments required for the endeavor. Usually, would-be students are driven away from learning to fly because they believe the process will take years of […]
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Aircraft Checklists
The importance of learning to use and using checklists. One element of inital flight training that new pilots often rebel against is the use of checklists. Over and over I hear brand new students pilots ask the same questions. Why do I need to use a checklist, why not just memorize the items and operate the […]
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Stall / Spin Training
Thoughts on spin training and unusual stalls. Yesterday I flew with a pilot to conduct a flight review. We had a discussion about stalls and spins and why understanding the nature of a spin was so important. He was flying a Cessna 210 and one of his comments was basically that he thought he would […]
