Northstar VFR

MARCH 23, 2025

As an aircraft enters the traffic pattern, it begins the process of getting configured to land on the runway. As the plane descends toward the runway on final approach, it may encounter various scenarios where a safe landing cannot be assured. Animals or even objects may wander onto the runway, creating the need to go-around.

Pilot

Plane and Pilot

JUNE 2, 2025

He then taxied to the runway and experienced an extended ground delay with the engine running at idle engine power settings. The airplane then descended back to the runway and bounced before lifting off nose-high again toward the end of the runway. He did not use carburetor heat during the ground delay or during takeoff.

Instrument Meteorological Conditions

Professional Pilot

JANUARY 2, 2025

By combining real-time sensor inputs with advanced visual modeling, the SVS highlights runway markers, lead-ins, and airport domes. Paired with the EVS-3000 enhanced flight vision system (EFVS), the avionics deliver real-time imagery of runway lighting, terrain, and obstacles.

Flight Deck

Photographic Logbook

SEPTEMBER 24, 2023

From flight planning, I knew that we would experience rain, instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), and darkness. Mitigating factors included no risk of convection (thunderstorms) or icing at our cruise altitude of 5,000 feet and VFR conditions expected to prevail at Saratoga Springs for our landing. Ground team!

Instrument Meteorological Conditions

Northstar VFR

JANUARY 4, 2023

by Gustin Robinson, FAA CFI-I ASEL Flying under instrument meteorological conditions keeps even a good pilot on their toes. But now, while flying in low visibility and overcast cloud layers, you have to rely on your instrumentation more than ever before and keep your eyes inside the airplane.

Instrument Meteorological Conditions

Photographic Logbook

DECEMBER 26, 2023

Number of hours flown in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) in 2023 for a lifetime total of 79.1. This was largely due to my week in Michigan for seaplane training in which I logged 31.4 hours in a single week combined across time in my Warrior and Tom's Super Cruiser. 12.7 / 135.6:

Instrument Meteorological Conditions

Photographic Logbook

JULY 11, 2024

We made an IFR departure that morning on runway 16 and climbed above the ceiling in short order. We spent some time in instrument meteorological conditions over Vermont. Indeed, it did improve from low IFR to IFR conditions with a 500 foot ceiling by the time we reached Syracuse.

Ceiling

Pilot's Life Blog

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

Regulatory Requirements for Instrument Currency Instrument Currency Basics To maintain instrument currency, the FAA mandates that within the preceding six months, a pilot must have performed and logged at least six instrument approaches, holding procedures, and intercepting and tracking courses using navigational systems.

Instrument Flight Rules

Photographic Logbook

JANUARY 25, 2025

When bay ice consistently thickens to over 12 inches, a team of dedicated volunteers collaborates with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation to open the Alton Bay Ice Runway. Over the years, its coveted status as the only FAA-authorized ice runway in the continental United States has endeared it to aviators seeking novelty.

Runway

Professional Pilot

AUGUST 8, 2024

According to the FAA Safety Team (FAASTeam), a stable approach is defined as one in which the pilot establishes and maintains a constant angle glidepath toward a predetermined point on the landing runway. This internal bargaining effect sets a potentially dangerous precedent because there’s no objective limit to defining an unstable approach.

Approach

Pilot Institute

JUNE 26, 2024

These include a runway collision, porpoising, bouncing, or possible overrun. ATC can also ask for a go-around if the landing runway is unsafe or for spacing reasons. An approach is stabilized when: The aircraft is on the correct flight path, i.e., on runway centerline and glideslope. Airspeed is not less than 1.3Vso +10/-0.

Wind Shear

Photographic Logbook

AUGUST 13, 2023

The ODP was a key element of my departure strategy, but I also filed to IPECA, the missed approach fix for the instrument approach to the runway we would use that morning. The direct route from our departure runway (34) to IPECA would also help manage terrain. Low clouds breaking up over Pickens County Airport.

Approach

Professional Pilot

MARCH 6, 2025

It had a short runway which was often contaminated with snow and ice. The pilots reduced power to bleed altitude, but, given the short distance to the runway, they knew they would land long. At some mountain airports, the wind can be blowing simultaneously out of 2 very different directions at either end of the runway.

Crosswind

Photographic Logbook

OCTOBER 28, 2023

Putting the front to our tails, we flew in IMC (instrument meteorological conditions) for 30 minutes before emerging under a clear blue sky. Final, runway 34, photographed from Two Six Romeo. We were cleared to land number four on runway 34 and asked to keep our speed up to accommodate a Pilatus behind us.

Clearance