Flying Magazine

JULY 16, 2025

[Adobe Stock] Get Back to Basics As instrument pilots, the importance of the stabilized approach was hammered into our heads during training. Configure the aircraft (flaps, landing gear, and approach power setting) somewhere around the final approach fix and head down the three-degree glideslope to be at VREF on short final.

Approach

Fear of Landing

AUGUST 9, 2024

An airfield traffic pattern, also known as a circuit, is a standard path used by air traffic approaching the runway. A standard pattern at a general aviation airport is a loop, usually to the left, shaped a bit like a race track. The gyroplane was on the base leg, approaching the runway from the south.

Runway

Plane and Pilot

AUGUST 27, 2024

Back in the early days of jet airliners, pilots long experienced in more forgiving two- and four-engine, piston-powered prop planes found themselves running out of airspeed, altitude, and ideas on the final approach to landing. Several of these unstabilized approaches resulted in major aircraft damage or worse. Simple as that.

Stability

Air Facts

SEPTEMBER 13, 2024

What NTSB Reports Say About Impossible Turns and Angle of Attack—Part 2: Analysis, Questions Raised, and Next Steps The current emphasis in general aviation (GA) safety is on visual angle of attack (AOA) indicators and impossible turns (return to the airport following engine failure). for several general aviation airplanes.

Gross Weight

Pilot Institute

OCTOBER 16, 2024

An IFR pilot will run the GUMPS checklist before passing the final approach fix. Leading you to become too high and too fast on the approach. Final Approach The last turn will be from base to final. If flying IFR, most approaches will align you perfectly with the runway. So, what does GUMPS stand for?

Airplanes

Photographic Logbook

SEPTEMBER 24, 2023

General Aviation to the rescue! As we maneuvered for the approach, we passed through an invisible rain shower in the darkness of sufficient vigor that the sound of rain ticking on the windshield penetrated our headsets. Drive time to Saratoga Springs is 3.5 Even slowed by a 25 knot headwind, the airplane still saved time.

Instrument Meteorological Conditions

Photographic Logbook

OCTOBER 10, 2023

Among General Aviation pilots, there was great fear that private aircraft would be permanently barred from controlled airspace, particularly around the epicenters of those attacks in New York City and Washington DC. Although 9/11 marked the weaponization of commercial aircraft, the aftereffects are felt most keenly by General Aviation.

Transponder

Photographic Logbook

JULY 14, 2024

We reached the island shortly after numerous other arrivals, our five airplanes creating a small arrival push at the uncontrolled general aviation airport. Final approach, runway 28, Block Island State Airport. Maneuvering for the traffic pattern south of Block Island. Photo by Steve.

Runway

Pilot Institute

SEPTEMBER 24, 2024

There can be up to three marker beacons on an approach: Outer Marker (flashes blue) – Represents the Final Approach Fix and/or glideslope intercept. ILS Categories Aircraft Approach Categories There are the categories listed on your instrument approach chart. Category B: 91 knots to less than 121 knots.

Knot

Photographic Logbook

JULY 7, 2024

When we made the decision to flee Boston early all of those years ago, we reasoned that it was a short flight and access to downtown from an outlying general aviation airport was relatively simple via Uber. Once rolling on the runway, we were cleared to taxi to FlightLevel Aviation on the west side of the field.

Approach

AeroSavvy

AUGUST 20, 2021

I’m not Lindbergh… This trip was ambitious for me, but quite common in the general aviation community. Phoenix Approach Control gave us a few delay vectors before turning us onto final approach. Small aircraft are designed for these kinds of flights.

Density Altitude

Air Facts

SEPTEMBER 9, 2024

This broad scope approach is ultimately needed to help keep our friends, created in the image of God, alive. The current emphasis in general aviation (GA) safety is on visual angle of attack (AOA) indicators and impossible turns (return to the airport following engine failure).

General Aviation

Plane and Pilot

SEPTEMBER 7, 2024

The Legacy General Aviation Fleet The beauty of so many legacy single-engine GA aircraft is that, when cared for properly, their aluminum airframes are quite resilient and resistant to fatigue. Maybe this is due to the slide rule and drafting table generation that designed them.

Cockpit

Photographic Logbook

JANUARY 25, 2025

Rolling out on final approach, I was surprised to see another airplane stopped right at the runway threshold. The entire morning was a parade of general aviation airplanes swooping low (some lower than others) over the parking area before touching down on the ice. It was only half full of parked aircraft.

Runway

Photographic Logbook

JULY 21, 2024

While Alyssa attended to the restaurant, Mark and I pushed the Warrior back into a parking space at the unique general aviation airport occupying a terraced hillside. Watching the stalwart amphibian on final approach, I was reminded of how solid the aircraft felt in the air when I got to fly her.

Weight-Shift-Control

Jetwhine

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

Using HD cameras, controllers can zoom in on any given point within the cameras range, say an aircraft on final approach. An important update to the Remote Tower project appeared in a recent edition of the Reason Foundations Aviation News Policy newsletter, written by the foundations director of Transportation Policy, Bob Poole.

Air Traffic Control

Pilot Institute

JUNE 26, 2024

Yet, statistics show that go-arounds are among the riskiest maneuvers in general aviation. A go-around is a maneuver performed to abort or reject a landing on the final approach or once the aircraft has already touched down. After all, stopping landing while you’re already flying shouldn’t be too complicated.

Wind Shear

Photographic Logbook

AUGUST 3, 2024

While the whole thing did not quite go as planned because long general aviation cross country flights rarely do, it was a wonderful trip and a great opportunity to share some of the beauty of my home state with friends from the East who really had no idea what to expect.

Airplanes

Plane and Pilot

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

said the company is the world’s largest privately owned aircraft manufacturer and was the number 1 seller of single-engine piston planes in the first quarter of 2024, according to the General Aviation Manufacturing Association (GAMA) figures. Clearing the final approach path, we extended full flaps and stabilized at 70 knots.

Knot