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Manned Flight
Read about general aviation flight training topics.
Unmanned Flight
Read about the various applications of drones.
Simulated Flight
Read about real world benefits of using a flight simulator
Weather Or Not – The Decision Making Process
A successful flight starts long before the tanks are topped off with fuel or the ignition is ever started. It goes back before preflight and past even the restful night before. Today we'll walk through a decision-making weather scenario that begins several days prior...
A Guide To The Fixed Base Operator
Learning to fly naturally involves your own flight school at your home airport. The plane starts and ends at the same spot each time. Maybe you have the number to call for fuel saved in your phone. My flight school has the plane fueled and ready on the ramp when I...
10 Ways To Consume Aviation Content On The Go
When I was learning to fly, I didn't have nearly the resources that exist today, especially when it comes to technology. Don't worry, this isn't a lecture on how things were when I was your age. In the early 2000s, when I wanted to consume aviation content, I had...
Airplane Instrument Basics: The Six Pack
What in the world do all of these gauges do? That’s often the first reaction when someone sees an airplane cockpit. There is a lot of information being displayed on the various needles in an aircraft – it can be overwhelming. But every airplane has a few staple...
Airspace 101
It's easy to look up to the sky and see a bunch of nothing. I'm always in wonder when there are lots of unusual clouds because it gives great dimension to an otherwise endless blue void. On the ground, we draw imaginary lines all over the land, making states,...
Cessna 172 Flight Simulator Enroute + Landing
We are in the air and on the way to Shelbyville! In part one and part two of our three part flight simulator cross country series, we started up our Cessna 172 in Smyrna (KMQY), just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. We listened to the weather, taxied to the runway,...
Cessna 172 Flight Simulator Departure
In our last Clayviation YouTube session, we began a multi-part series showing each phase of a short cross country flight. We began in Smyrna, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville, and started up the engine. This week, we are going to show the taxi, engine run up and...
Engine Failure Scenario – What Would You Do?
There's something to be said about doing things by the book. Learning the "textbook" way of doing things is important. For the most basic of reasons, you can't pass the test if you don't learn the textbook. In aviation, doing things the right way - by the book - is a...
Engine Startup In A Cessna 172
I sat in the cockpit, looking over the engine cowling, watching the mechanic as he worked his magic. "Okay try it now," he called, stepping away from the airplane. I ran through the checklist. "Mixture rich, carb heat cold, throttle open a quarter inch." I finished...
3 Types of Flight To Fuel Your Passion For Aviation
Most conversations I have that involve mentioning being a pilot inevitably turn towards the airlines. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but respect for airline pilots, but thinking that the only facet of aviation are the airlines is like thinking that the only flavor...
6 Critical Elements To Determine Your Personal Minimums
It's the time of the season for giving and thankfulness, and this week's blog is a contribution to an aviation colleague who's partnership I am very thankful for. If you've been flying first class with me at Clayviation for a while, you might recall a blog about...
The No Go Decision
I packed up the drone and headed up to the mountains of North Carolina for a friend's wedding. Looking forward to a great weekend of festivities, I was also dreaming of the awesome shots I'd be able to take from the air - I've been wanting to get my Phantom 4 into the...
The Drone Checklist
A little notification popped up on my screen - "weak transmission signal." My drone wasn't that far away from me and was in perfect line of sight. The live feed from the camera flickered a bit as I recorded a video. I had just taken off and gained a little altitude...
A Closer Look At Engine Failure In A Cessna
Fly along as we do what you’ve always feared – shutting down the engine mid-flight.
What Pilots Need To Know About Drones
The FAA estimates 7 million drones to be buzzing around in the airspace system by 2020. As a pilot, there are understandable concerns about what it means to have so many people sharing the same airspace. Having functioned as both an airplane pilot and a drone...
5 Drone Maneuvers To Improve Your Flying
I'm always amazed when I look at how far video games have come. I remember looking at the controller for the original Nintendo when it was new out of the box. "Wow - look at all those buttons," I gawked. In retrospect, that controller had nothing to it - a control pad...
How To Read A Terminal Area Forecast
It's not always too difficult to tell if the weather is good enough to fly - in the moment. Looking up to a clear blue windless sky is a pretty good sign. The big question with weather is often "what's going to happen next?" On a recent flight to Nashville,...
Introducing The DJI Phantom 4 Drone
It is the dawn of the drone. In August of 2016, the FAA released the first ever rules on commercial drone use. First ever because the technology has only recently gotten to the point that the rules were needed. There is now a clear cut path for people to use a drone...
Stuck Mic Avcast & The Clayviation Blueprints
This week, the Stuck Mic Avcast invited me on the podcast to discuss aviation and the future of Clayviation. The recording will be available for your listening pleasure on October 1, 2016 through your favorite podcast app or at stuckmicavcast.com. While the blog is...
4 Reasons To Call Flight Service Before You Fly
With today's plethora of technology, making a phone call before a flight for a weather briefing seems like an unnecessary step - on the surface. After all, programs like Foreflight can give you a step by step briefing of weather, notams, forecasts and more. But even...
A Long Cross Country Flight
This past week, I took a cross country flight from Thomson, Georgia to Nashville, Tennessee. You might wonder how one state over qualifies as a "cross country," but just like running cross country in high school doesn't mean coast to coast, so it is with aviation. In...
How To Read A Sectional Chart
Looking intently over the instrument panel directly in front of us, my seven year old son and I went back and forth. "Is that it?" He called, pointing over one way. "No, I don't think so," I replied. "There! Those lights - is that it!?" He called back. "Those look...
The Hundred Dollar Hamburger
Much like touching the top of a mountain with your hand when reaching the top, or planting a flag on the moon, the Coke was the same sort of symbolic checkpoint.
How To Use A Manual E6B Flight Computer
What Is This Thing? It might look like you need a degree in Rocket Science to have any business trying to figure out an E6B, but you don't. It's actually quite simple once you understand how it's laid out and a couple basics. There are seemingly limitless functions...
A Pilot’s Guide To Renting Airplanes
One of the first things people ask me about being a pilot is if I own an airplane. My answer? "I wish I did. Well, kinda." You see, it's not assumed that a pilot owns an airplane like it is that a driver owns a car. I think of it more like a house. There are times...
How To Read A METAR Aviation Weather Report
A METAR, or aviation routine weather report, is an hourly surface observation from a weather station, usually at an airport. It gets its name from the term Meteorological Aerodrome Report, but boy is that a mouthful. In a nutshell, it's what the weather is doing at...
12 Must Have Aviation iPad Apps
I tried to explain to my seven year old how incredible the iPad he was playing on was. It might be commonplace to most of us by now, but the technology we have at our fingertips is remarkable. In my most genuine "back in my day" sort of rant, I reminisced on tape...
How To Start Flight Training And Build Your Flight Bag
Maybe you are curious about flight training - you love the idea of being a pilot but don't know if you have what it takes (Read the Clayviation blog What Does It Take To Become A Pilot?). Perhaps you've always wanted to do it but just don't know how to take the first...
5 Tools To Better Understand And Improve Aviation Radio Communication
My airplane was stopped in the middle of the runway at the Athens Ben Epps Airport (KAHN). I was a student pilot and it was my first time flying solo - just me in the Cessna 172 - at the tower controlled Class D airport. I heard the tower call me. "Cessna 916, back...
7 Innovative Drone Uses PLUS The New Rules Explained
What's With All These Drones? You've probably seen and heard a lot about drones lately. That kid down your street has one. That wedding you went to was filming video with a drone. The airports seem concerned about them flying into airplanes and I think there was a...
5 Ways That A Flight Simulator Can Make You A Better Pilot
This week, you'll find the Clayviation blog as the feature blog over at Hangar.Flights, a rapidly growing online resource for pilots including blogs, stories, discussions, and videos. They also have a very cool Instagram. Hangar.Flights and Clayviation share core...
What Does It Take To Become A Pilot?
The sun burst into the cockpit, nearly blinding me as I leveled off to land just above the runway on final approach. Using the visual cues that I could, I hoped for the best as my otherwise graceful approach to land settled down on the runway - a lot harder than I...
Does An Airplane Drop Like A Rock?
How And Why Airplanes Fly (Instead Of Falling) Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were flying on an airplane and all the engines stopped working? Would you just start falling? A fear of flying is fairly common. For some, it's the smaller space. Others,...
It’s Always Sunny Outside
The airplane windows faded to a hazy white as I climbed up into the cloud layer. It was my very first time in the clouds. I had just taken off from Peachtree City Falcon Field (KFFC) on a gray, rainy day. The kind of rainy day that just rains lightly. Constantly....
A Pilot Is Born
I peered out of the window into the darkness below. The only indication that anything aside from a black void was below us were the sparkling lights of cities and towns as we flew over them. I was still in the first few hours of my initial pilot training over a decade...
Sharing Flight With A New Generation
My son was right next to me as I called the airport to cancel the flight. "It's a no go today. These clouds just won't let us in the air." Reid is just weeks away from turning seven and he has never been flying. Not on a commercial airline, and not with me, a...
Inspiring Tomorrow’s Pilot.
Whether you are a seasoned pilot, learning to fly or just curious, Clayviation is about taking a very complicated discipline and making it easy to understand. Follow along on flights and learn different aviation concepts and disciplines. Join the mailing list for...
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