Justin’s Pilot Reports (PIREP)

It’s something we’ve all heard about during our flight training and at many safety seminars since. CNN just posted some dramatic footage recreated from radar and transponder data depicting a couple of near-collisions. When you think of the loss of life involved in the collision of two large airliners, watching the video is a sobering reminder to all of us to follow ATC instructions when taxiing and to use our eyes to double-check. For example, if you’re asked to hold short on a runway, are you looking down the final approach path to double-check that it’s clear or just taking ATC’s word for it??

This is an excerpt of Runway incursions.
Read the full entry.

My last two logbook entries depict flights with quality, IFR flying. Both flights involved the completion of three instrument approaches in actual conditions. One involved an honest to God holding pattern requested by ATC while the other involved my first approach to a military installation - Lackland AFB (Kelly Field Annex).

Now THAT was an experience!

You see, Lackland AFB is home to an 11,550 foot long by 300 foot wide runway. The runway bears the scars of many C-5A Galaxy landings. Shortly after emerging from a slightly bumpy broken layer of clouds at 3,000 feet I was advised by Kelly Tower that I was “Cleared for the Low Approach.”

This is an excerpt of IFR Adventures.
Read the full entry.

If you’re not spending the time to give your passengers a safety briefing before each flight, start doing so. Here’s a perfect example of why this is so important:

Mother saves daughter from submerged plane

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/13920619/detail.html

The pilot provided specific instructions about how to exit the plane in the event of an emergency during his pre-flight checklist. This information is credited for saving four lives in this tragic landing accident (the pilot was killed).

As is the case with many weekend flyers, losing the ability to file and fly under Instrument Flight Rules is a reality (especially for those of us with babies/young children at home). It’s strange, but once you have an Instrument Rating the ability to “just fly VFR” seems so limiting.

This is not a negative comment about flying under Visual Flight Rules.  Heavens no! Nothing beats the pure freedom of VFR flight. But when I did a few VFR flights after the birth of my daughter, the lack of being able to file IFR in the air, due to unexpected weather, made me seem vulnerable. Those big clouds in the sky get a little more intimidating when you know you can’t bore a hole right through them!

This is an excerpt of “Real world flying” to regain instrument proficiency.
Read the full entry.

…into skies wide and blue

….into canyons of cumulous.

…into a sea of air.

Leonardo da Vinci says it all, “When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

That statement, at least for me, is so absolutely true. When weeks or months go by without flying, the sky seems to beckon to me - sometimes urgently. I’ll see a small airplane overhead and a chord is struck deep inside me. It’s hard to describe.

This is an excerpt of A prop and spinner will lead me….
Read the full entry.

On April 5th, 2007 I had a reunion.

A reunion with the sky.

A clear, blue sky and a gentle breeze were my playground. My transportation to this playground was Skyhawk 23758, a Cessna 172 with a “glass cockpit” and an urgent desire to defy gravity. Or was that my desire? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

I know. I just made a reference inferring that the airplane I flew had feelings.

But don’t they? I wonder what kind of results I’d get if I took a poll, right now, to find out how many pilots assign human characteristics to their flying machines. Assigning some feeling to your airplane surely is Anthropomorphism at its best!

This is an excerpt of Reunion with the sky….
Read the full entry.