Pilot Institute

APRIL 4, 2025

If you dream of becoming a pilot, you might be wondering if its a hard career to enter. So, is it hard to be a pilot? Key Takeaways To become a pilot, you must invest a considerable amount of time, effort, and money. Pilots face many challenges, but the rewards and incentives make them worthwhile.

Pilot

Air Facts

MARCH 5, 2025

Teaching International Student Pilots Air Facts Journal In the mid 70s, I was a USAF T-38 instructor pilot (IP) in the 71 st Flying Training Wing at Vance AFB (KEND) in Enid, Oklahoma. Two squadrons trained students in their journey to become Air Force pilots. The venerable Tweet A.K.A. The 6000-pound dog-whistle!

Pilot

Plane and Pilot

MARCH 25, 2025

I dont exactly fit the standard pilot profile of Game Aerospaces GB1 GameBird But theres always been something about the GameBird that has piqued my interest. Its first-class team, led by Ian Waghorn, ensures that pilots leave the training program feeling confident, competent, and safe in their new or new-to-them GameBird.

Knot

Pilot Institute

DECEMBER 31, 2024

Have you ever thought about landing an airplane without using flaps? It might sound a bit scary, but its a valuable skill for a pilot to master. Think about these scenarios: maybe the flaps stop working, or youre flying an older airplane that doesnt even have them. Better situational awareness. Pre-Landing Checklist 1.

Pilot

Flight Training Central

MAY 26, 2025

Here we’ll highlight the various maneuvers you’ll practice during your flight training and be expected to demonstrate during your Private Pilot checkride. One of the most valuable skills a pilot can develop, crosswind landings demand precise control and sound technique.

Crosswind

Pilot Institute

FEBRUARY 15, 2025

This will also correspond with the headings read out by both ATC and the pilot. When an airplane is flying north, it is always said to be flying a heading of three-six-zero, and never zero zero zero degrees. Pilots align their compass or heading indicator with the runway direction during takeoff and landing.

Runway

Pilot Institute

MARCH 7, 2025

Well examine why they should always go hand-in-hand and how you can improve your skills to become a more capable pilot. Key Takeaways Currency ensures a pilot meets FAA legal requirements to act as pilot-in-command. Proficiency is a pilots ability to fly skillfully and safely beyond legal minimums.

Pilot

Pilot Institute

MARCH 28, 2025

Pilots avoid vortices by maintaining safe separation and adjusting flight paths. When the aircraft encounters a vortex and its strong enough to induce roll, the pilot counters it by using the ailerons against the roll and tries to fly out of the wake as soon as possible. How Are Wingtip Vortices Formed? Mass and inertia also matter.

Turbulence

Air Facts

APRIL 9, 2025

That new plan, when combined with the portable Starlink Mini hardware kit ($499), means pilots can finally have high speed internet access in flight, without large external antennas or prohibitively expensive monthly fees. If this anecdotal sample is any guide, pilots have noticed the news. The system is hardly perfect.

Weather

Plane and Pilot

APRIL 1, 2025

Airplane ready. Pilot ready? At 500 feet down the runway, the little airplane leaped into the air despite my plan to build more speed before taking off. Adrenaline coursed through my veins, and every sense was tuned to the heartbeat of the small new airplane. I turned crosswind and attempted to shallow the climb.

Runway

Pilot Institute

JANUARY 3, 2025

Have you ever wondered how pilots determine wind direction and speed at a glance? A windsock is an essential aviation tool that helps pilots make safe decisions. Role in Aviation and Other Industries What makes windsocks so reliable for pilots? Regular inspection of windsocks makes sure you receive reliable wind information.

Knot

Pilot Institute

MARCH 19, 2025

When flying an airplane, you become a part of the air around you. Pilots use METARs for flight safety, runway selection, and weather planning. Pilots love knowing about the wind. Ideally, they try to land into a headwind, may tolerate crosswinds , and try to avoid significant tailwinds. What Is a METAR?

Weather

Flying Magazine

JUNE 17, 2025

The pre-solo learner was having a difficult time staying ahead of the airplane. For the unfamiliar, it is a mnemonic device designed to help pilots remember the tasks required of the before-landing checklist. It’s been used by pilots for decades. Part of the problem was that the learner was in a hurry to get into the airplane.

Airplanes

Pilot Institute

FEBRUARY 19, 2025

Many sim pilots also purchase dedicated peripherals to control the rudder and engines. Never before have sim pilots seen the world portrayed with such stunning accuracy. For the first time, sim pilots can navigate visually using real-world landmarks. .” Well, except Ercoupe pilots.

Rudder

Plane and Pilot

NOVEMBER 10, 2024

Sometimes it’s emotional—the Beech Starship, what few of them are still in the wild, inevitably wow viewers of both the pilot and nonpilot persuasion. How did any given airplane sell? However, the airplane must be completed in a way that it conforms exactly to the SLSA example, of which there must be one for an ELSA to exist.

Airplanes

Plane and Pilot

MAY 3, 2025

Airplanes like the Piper Cherokee probably dont get their due. Ask a stranger to think of a small GA airplane, and theyll probably conjure something like a Cub. Fearsome metal airplanes helped win a global conflict, yet pilots came home to variations on prewar designs of tube-and-fabric construction and modest performance.

Approach

Plane and Pilot

JUNE 26, 2025

Many of you may know Johnson from his monthly Plane & Pilot columns and website, bydanjohnson.com , a popular light sport resource that will soon be integrated into the P&P website. I’ll start introducing you to everyone I know, and we’ll have them teach you a little bit about each of these airplanes.”

Aileron

Air Facts

MAY 14, 2025

Throttle Mismanagement: A T-38 Lesson That Stuck Air Facts Journal An Air Force instructor teaches a powerful lesson on throttle finessein a jet that doesnt forgive overcorrections Have you ever been in a car or plane where the person driving or piloting is constantly adjusting the throttle? Youve got the airplane.

AGL

Pilot's Life Blog

JUNE 18, 2025

Turns: Students practice shallow, medium, and steep turns to develop a feel for how the airplane behaves when banking. This develops an understanding of how the airplane reacts at low speeds, a critical skill for safe takeoffs and landings. Controlled, safe descent techniques protect the pilot and passengers.

Pilot

Air Facts

MAY 19, 2025

The checklist transformed from mere procedure into a ritual of relationship, a dialogue between pilot and machine. Each flight added new layers of understandingthe way morning fog clings to river valleys, how afternoon thermals dance over mountains, the particular way crosswinds speak to the wings. But slowly, something shifted.

Crosswind

Flying Magazine

JUNE 5, 2025

Pilots will notice that the natural spoils of the greater Ozarks region are as stunning from the air than they are on the ground. An additional point of emphasis for pilots flying in is that the runway sits in an east-west orientation and often has a crosswind, caused by north-blowing winds.

Runway

Air Facts

APRIL 14, 2025

The system for VAOAI is pretty much all of general aviation and not just the hardware on the airplane. Rather, the system, in the largest sense, includes VAOAI advocates and promoters, regulators, pilots, aircraft, regulations, training, airports, air traffic, airspace, weather, publications, public opinion, and more.

Final Approach

Flying Magazine

MAY 14, 2025

Sporty’s Electronic E6B Flight Computer Sporty’s Electronic E6B offers a pilot-friendly design that makes quick work of any navigational, weight and balance, or fuel problem. It includes video training, essential pilot supplies, and access to online learning platforms and mobile apps. inches in diameter.

Flight Computer

Plane and Pilot

FEBRUARY 19, 2025

From 150s to Cherokee 140s to two-place Grumman AA-1s , good airplanes abound, but most are quite commonplace and few really stand out as classic or unique. While, in the air, the two share virtually identical flying characteristics, the tricycle gear of the Tri-Pacer certainly makes it easier to negotiate gusty crosswinds.

Payload

Plane and Pilot

JUNE 15, 2025

Piper PA-28-180 Riverside, California/Injuries: 1 Minor NTSB Report: WPR23LA156 The pilot completed the airplane’s engine run-up and carburetor heat function checks with no anomalies noted. The pilot initiated a forced landing straight ahead in a field. He did not use carburetor heat during the ground delay or during takeoff.

Instrument Meteorological Conditions

Vintage Aviation News

APRIL 25, 2025

The aircraft had to land into a 15-knot crosswind, and the plane landed at a speed of 115 mph, well below the standard landing speed of between 150-175 mph. One of these is a Curtiss JN-4D Jenny displayed inverted with the mannequin of a wing-walker standing between the two wings, while the mannequin of a pilot sits in the rear cockpit.

Cockpit

Inflight Pilot Training

FEBRUARY 13, 2025

Earning your wings is about more than just learning to flyits about developing the skills, confidence, and decision-making abilities that will shape you into a safe and competent pilot. If you plan to pursue a Private Pilot Certificate, you must be at least 17 years old to obtain it, though you can begin training earlier.

Aileron

Plane and Pilot

JUNE 23, 2025

On May 1, 2023, a pilot flying his 1979 Beechcraft A36 Bonanza, with two friends on board, was headed to the Big Bear City Airport (L35) to check out a Cessna 150 for sale on the field. Moments later, the airplane crashed. And the pilot didn’t plan to land in the open-looking lot, because of a landing gear issue.

True Airspeed

Pilot Institute

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

Have you ever wondered how pilots keep control at high speeds, during stalls, or even when systems fail? Or how do modern airplanes reduce dangerous effects like aileron flutter or adverse yaw? The pilot is able to control the aircrafts roll by turning the control yoke or sidestick in the cockpit.

Aileron

Pilot Institute

APRIL 22, 2025

Ground reference maneuvers aim to train you to accurately control your airplane under various wind conditions. Think of them as the lessons where you learn to master wind correction, aircraft control, and situational awareness all critical skills for a safe and proficient pilot. Remember to be mindful of anyone on the ground.

Crosswind

Flight Training Central

MAY 13, 2025

Most experienced pilots would be willing to admit that the perfect landing is much more of an art than a science. Best glide speed is only effective in strong crosswinds. The forward slip turns the airplanes fuselage into the relative wind. How does this affect the airplane aerodynamically? It may not be adjusted.

Approach

Flying Magazine

JULY 8, 2025

You may have ideas on how to expedite your training—such as flying five hours a day, five days a week with the idea you’ll be a private pilot in two months. Sometimes the flight school will urge the learner to accelerate their training by doing both the private pilot and instrument ground schools at the same time. Could it happen?

Wind Shear

Pilot Institute

APRIL 12, 2025

Newton’s Third Law helps pilots and engineers improve flight safety and aircraft performance. Application of Newton’s Third Law in Aviation When we talk about airplanes, we focus primarily on two forces: Lift (how the aircraft stays aloft). What does Newtons Third law tell pilots about thrust?

Torque

Photographic Logbook

MAY 26, 2025

Piloting is all about decision making. Once cruising along on manmade wings, good pilots are constantly reassessing their circumstances, effectively asking themselves, "Am I on the right road?" Maybe I'm a slow learner, but it seems to me that improved decision making is a skill that a pilot might spend a lifetime refining.

Runway

Plane and Pilot

OCTOBER 29, 2024

Fussing with the avionics to keep tabs on the weather gave many more knob touches than the airplane itself. Kentland has a 4,000-foot runway, east/west, with a crosswind straight out of the north. And on short final at Knoxville, I got chirps from a flock of unrecognized electronic birds, telling me something but not in airplane-speak.

Weather

Jetwhine

JUNE 2, 2025

I learned as the days went on that McFarlane is a famous provider of almost anything great for airplanes and has a great reputation for building things better for less money. I walked around the show with Bob that year seeing all kinds of amazing airplane things. It was amazing to see all the people coming and going at our booth.

Airplanes

Pilot's Life Blog

JUNE 24, 2025

At Leopard Aviation , we guide pilots through every step—from ground lessons to engine-out drills—with flexible options that fit your goals and schedule. A multi‑engine rating is an FAA‑issued class rating add‑on that lets a certificated pilot legally fly twin-engine airplanes. Meeting FAA Requirements According to FAR 61.63(c),

Checkride