It’s a scenario that's not at all useful in the real world, but the theoretical debate rages on. In this situation, picture an airplane - the type is irrelevant - on a gigantic treadmill. The treadmill spools up its belt and the airplane powers up its engine(s),...

Pilots love to fly places, and in the spirit of the hundred dollar hamburger, the location usually doesn't matter. Any excuse to immerse yourself into the flying culture for a time will often do. The smell of AvGas, the sound of the engine roaring to life,...

When I was a student pilot on my first solo flight, the biggest comfort I found amongst the butterflies of being alone in an airplane was to talk myself through everything - out loud. It gave me a sense of normality, but there is also something very...

I've never stood on the wing of an airplane mid-flight. I guess it's nothing I've ever considered. If I ever found myself in that situation, though, I'd likely want to have a very competent pilot at the controls. So I certainly haven't ever pondered standing on the...

When we fly, our hope is that everything goes smoothly. We take care to build in redundancies and check and double check as much as possible. When things do go wrong, however, the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) teaches us about a couple of different radio...

The cockpit is an expensive classroom. When it comes to flying, the more you can do on the ground, the better. Studying, whether books, videos or a classroom setting, is certainly a necessary component of ground time, but what else can be done to utilize your time on...

There are a few critical things that every pilot needs to fly.  You might be thinking those things are money, fuel, and airspeed, often in that order.  True, but today we're talking about two documents that every pilot must have with them to fly; their pilot...

I like to think of myself as a "defensive driver." When I get to a four way stop, and I stop, I don't just glance around and go again. What if someone coming from another direction fails to stop? That means I'm getting hit. Sure, it's not my fault, but who cares about...

If you've been flying for much time at all, you've probably noticed that a significant portion of flight training is dedicated to handling deviations from the norm (or the "abnorm" as I have coined it).  A classic example is when your instructor pulls the throttle out...

Some of the concepts that we have to grasp in aviation are fairly straightforward. If you nose the plane over towards the ground, you tend to speed up. Wind blows you sideways, so you have to correct for that drift by adjusting your heading into the wind. These...

What time is it right now? Look at your watch or your phone. Your answer will likely differ from mine and others, even if we are all checking at the same moment in time. Think about the strike of midnight on New Years Eve, marking the turn of the new year. Everyone in...

When flying to another airport for a hundred dollar hamburger, a big part of the tradition is simply finding an excuse to fly somewhere. But that doesn't mean that the culinary experience that you have at the destination airport isn't significant. After all, food is a...

It's not hard to convince anyone that flying is an incredible way to travel. It's faster and often more convenient than other modes of transportation. It's the times when things go wrong that people fear the most. As a pilot, I'm not immune to that fear. Even as a...

"Alright, you can go with us, but we'll have to go with half full tanks." The amount of seats in an airplane can be deceiving. I fly a Cessna 172, which has four seats, but carrying four people is rarely a reality. To know what I can carry, I have to run some weight...

We know that what goes up must come down, but when I was in flight training, I always had a hard time determining exactly when to come down. I'd tend to begin my descent to an airport too late, when it was in clear view, leaving me with a more rapid descent than...

It's been said that getting your Private Pilot Certificate is a "license to learn." It's true that you should continue to learn from every flight you take; no pilot ever knows it all.  And while enjoying and exploring the privileges of a Private Pilot is fun on its...