During my pilot ground school, I always draw a diagram like the one above as we start to discuss regulations. I do this to reinforce the concept that being safe is not necessarily the same as being legal and being legal is not always the same as being safe. As pilots, we are likely to have a longer flying career if we restrict ourselves to operations that meet both criteria and stay away from the edges. Continue reading
It’s getting harder to find paper charts locally, whether VFR charts like sectionals and terminal area charts or instrument en route charts and instrument approach procedures. The reason is that many (most?) pilots are moving to charts on a tablet device.
Google Nexus 7 (2nd generation) with FltPlan.com app
For my primary (VFR) students, I require them to get a paper TAC and Sectional for their training, but most of my IFR students are going the tablet route.
For the second time in my flying career I had flaps fail Friday (in the same airplane in which they failed about 12 years ago). The flaps failed in the up position when preparing to land… my student went to put the flaps down and nothing happened; checked the circuit breakers.. no dice. So, time to land without flaps. In terms of severity of equipment failures, this really isn’t a big deal. All private pilots are required to demonstrate their ability to deal with this failure. My recounting of the failure, prompted a question about flap failure and slips. Let’s work through the what and why
I’ve read a number of articles recently on the dwindling and aging pilot population. A few statistics help to illustrate the problem facing us as we try to grow the pilot population…
1973:
Median income: $12,050
Average car: $3,650
Cessna 172 (new): $18,440
Today:
Median income: $51,300
Average car: $31,250
Cessna 172 (new): $360,000
On Monday, September 9, 2013, I experienced a total loss of power when flying my Cessna 172. I had just executed a touch and go on Long Beach (KLGB) runway 25L and was climbing out, when the engine sputtered and went quiet. At the time, I was near the departure end of the runway around 100′ – 200′ AGL. To give you the most important part of the story, I came out unscathed, but my airplane did not.
One last topic today, triggered by a reader question
Q: The things I’ve seen indicate that rotating to climb (applying an upward force on the clockwise-spinning propeller) causes the airplane to yaw left. But the right-hand rule says
Angular momentum (forward) X force (upward) = torque (to the right)
i.e., this results in a yaw to the right. What have I got wrong? Continue reading
Here’s another topic triggered by a reader question:
Q: Some stall speeds are specified with the occupants in the full forward CG position. This does not seem like it’s a conservative specification, i.e., if the occupants move rearward, that would tilt the plane backward, causing an increase in angle of attack, causing a higher stall speed. What am I missing here? Continue reading
A reader recently sent me the following question.
Q: If you fly over an airspace (e.g., EMT), is it customary to call in to the EMT tower just to make your intentions clear that you don’t intend to enter the airspace? Does it depend on whether you have flight following (by SoCal Approach, for example)? Continue reading
Rose Bowl
A reminder to all local pilots that the UCLA football season is starting soon. That means games at the Rose Bowl and the TFRs that go along with the games. The first Rose Bowl game will be on Saturday, August 31. You can find the schedule online, but here’s a quick summary of home games – some times have not been set and are subject to change. Continue reading
If you followed the planning and preparation for our Monterey trip, thank you! It’s always instructive to see how a flight goes relative to what you expected, so here’s our trip report.
Summary: the trip went about as planned, requiring a mixture of VFR and IFR to keep to a schedule, but could probably have been accomplished VFR if we were more flexible on time.
