Plane and Pilot

JULY 31, 2025

My first logbook entry in 1992 records a flight in a Beechcraft Skipper , its compact cockpit and low-wing design thrilling for a novice pilot. Aviation then was a realm of VOR needles, paper charts, and the pure joy of stick-and-rudder flight. Digital avionics enhance safety and ease pilot workload.

VOR

Simple Flying

FEBRUARY 6, 2025

The ICON A5 is an amphibious light-sport aircraft (LSA) that inspires recreational pilots, handling water landings with full (30-degree) flaps. With a maximum speed of 95 Knots (109 MPH, 176 km/h), the aircraft features an angle of attack indicator and a T-tail to keep the elevator and rudder in the propeller slipstream.

Rudder

Flying Magazine

JULY 3, 2025

I am an air ambulance pilot flying the venerable Lear 35 twinjet around the country, moving patients to critical and advanced care facilities. Then I pull out the pilot checklist (QRH). Rudder trim fixes the yaw issue, but surprisingly we do not have a single caution or warning light. Full flaps are mostly about drag, not lift.

Knot

Fear of Landing

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

For the next leg, from Corfu to Leeds Bradford Airport, the captain, an ATPL with 14,250 hours, of which 2,800 were on type, was the Pilot Flying. As they descended towards Leeds, the crew calculated the landing performance with the wind at 060 at 19 knots. And sometimes its 35 knots across *and* thick fog. Like Jersey.

Crosswind

AV Web

APRIL 11, 2025

According to news reports, sources say the pilot reported a rudder-related control issue. Its highest recorded altitude was 525 feet at 125 knots on its final circling maneuver. A Cessna 310R light twin crashed approximately 13 minutes after takeoff from Boca Raton Airport (KBCT) in Florida. All three on board were killed.

Rudder

CFI Academy

MARCH 28, 2025

They go beyond the basic power-on and power-off stalls required for private or commercial pilots, focusing on scenarios that instructors need to teach students about to enhance stall awareness and safety. left aileron, right rudder). Apply excessive rudder in the opposite direction of the turn while holding aileron into the turn.

Aileron

Pilot's Life Blog

JUNE 18, 2025

At Leopard Aviation , we teach steep turns as a core part of pilot training because they build essential skills like coordination, control, and situational awareness. Fundamentals of Steep Turns Steep turns are a fundamental maneuver that every pilot must master to improve control, coordination, and overall flying precision.

Pilot

Pilot's Life Blog

JUNE 18, 2025

We train pilots step-by-step, combining hands-on practice and expert guidance to build confidence and skill in handling crosswinds safely. Pilots calculate the crosswind component by determining the wind direction and speed relative to the runway heading. Use rudder inputs to keep the aircraft tracking straight as you slow down.

Crosswind

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. The canopy provides plenty of headroom for even taller pilots, while the view over the nose is equally generous. But successful? Not at all. How did any given airplane sell?

Airplanes

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

JULY 2, 2025

This is new territory for beginning pilots, who must be taught the right—and wrong—ways to manage ascent and descent. Learning to go up or down are fundamental skills that are frequently neglected during a pilot training regimen. The post Going Up and Going Down appeared first on Plane & Pilot.

Descent

Pilot Institute

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

Have you ever wondered how pilots keep control at high speeds, during stalls, or even when systems fail? Adverse yaw is a side effect of aileron use, countered by rudder input. The pilot is able to control the aircrafts roll by turning the control yoke or sidestick in the cockpit. What Is an Aileron?

Aileron

CFI Academy

MARCH 28, 2025

They go beyond the basic power-on and power-off stalls required for private or commercial pilots, focusing on scenarios that instructors need to teach students about to enhance stall awareness and safety. left aileron, right rudder). Apply excessive rudder in the opposite direction of the turn while holding aileron into the turn.

Aileron

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

Plane and Pilot

OCTOBER 29, 2024

The FAA weather said a thunderstorm was forecast, gusts to 6 knots. After turning the corner, I was rewarded with tailwinds of up to 22 knots, so the big detour cost me only 15 minutes. Full flaps and 80 knots, trimmed, the airplane asked, is this what I really wanted? There was also a link to a bridge for sale. No complaints.

Weather

Flying Magazine

JULY 18, 2025

It starts with three 14-inch displays—pilot and copilot PFDs, plus an MFD. It’s been flying in later-gen Cirrus Vision Jets, Daher TBMs, HondaJet Elite II, and now the Epic E1000 AX, where it’s proving to be a single-pilot workload reducer. There’s also automatic low airspeed protection when below VMCA, plus 15 knots indicated.

Flight Deck

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. Hunton and McLeod pilot the J-230D around South Texas. Twist my arm,” I thought.

Aileron

Plane and Pilot

MARCH 7, 2025

To that he added wings and tail, and placed the pilot behind all this. The pilot moved from behind the hopper to the top of it. The PL-12 retained the high-mounted pilot seat and added seats for three passengers, one behind the pilot and two behind the large hopper. The tank formed the center fuselage.

Tail

AV Web

JULY 1, 2025

Senior pilots (many were career professionals stepping down into GA) liked what they saw in the new LSA market: modern two-placers with far more tech than the average Skyhawk or Cherokee—not bad machines for golden-years fun. Today, the difficult insurance market is forcing plenty of aging pilots out of retracs , twins and turbines.

Gross Weight

Pilot's Life Blog

JANUARY 5, 2025

One of the most reliable aircraft for training is the Piper Seminole, a twin-engine plane that offers hands-on experience for future pilots. Section 1: Getting to Know the Piper Seminole The Piper Seminole is a versatile twin-engine aircraft frequently used for flight training, particularly for pilots advancing to multi-engine ratings.

Descent

Plane and Pilot

NOVEMBER 22, 2024

The 26-year-old pilot was the plane’s only occupant and was pronounced dead by first responders at 12:06 p.m. The pilot, a homebuilder with a young family, had landed at 11:11 a.m. The pilot, a homebuilder with a young family, had landed at 11:11 a.m. The pilot soloed when he was 16 and had around 920 total flying hours.

Knot

Fear of Landing

MAY 9, 2025

” That day, the captain was the Pilot Flying and the first officer was the Pilot Monitoring. During the take-off roll, the first officer noticed that although the Challenger 300 was accelerating normally, the right-side primary flight control had stopped showing acceleration above 40 knots. Captain : Why is it in pitch?

Turbulence

Air Facts

AUGUST 1, 2025

I was just shy of 13 flight hours toward earning my EASA Private Pilot License in Italy. I was 10 years old, and my grandfather, a former Air Force pilot, watched me play and gave me tips that actually worked. At 55 knots, I eased back on the stick. A crosswind gust nudged me left; I corrected with right rudder.

Runway

Flying Magazine

JULY 17, 2025

Aside from its ramp appeal, pilots were intrigued with its high-flying pressurized cabin, 200-knot cruise speed, and impressive range. As one owner said, the thing looked like it was going 200 knots sitting on the ground. Sharp stick-and-rudder work in crosswinds is a must. million in 2025 dollars.

Knot

Plane and Pilot

JULY 1, 2025

The pilot said he refueled the airplane the day before the accident and checked the fuel level during his preflight inspection the following morning. The pilot made a forced landing in the ocean just offshore of the beach, resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage. Probable cause(s): A loss of power due to fuel exhaustion.

Density Altitude

AV Web

JANUARY 22, 2025

The private pilot was fatally injured. Winds were from 290 degrees at 15 knots, gusting to 21 knots. The pilot who perished was well known in STOL Drag competitive circles and highly regarded for his flying safety entries on his YouTube channel. The accident pilot was participating in the 2022 Wayne County (Neb.)

Final Approach

Plane and Pilot

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

The pilot replied, Im trying to, uhkeep climbing. The pilot checked in normally. The Fort Lauderdale controller asked if the pilot would like to return to North Perry. The pilot died at the scene. As a pilot hed logged just over 300 hours total time, including 15 hours in the Pawnee. Im showing you at 600 feet now.

Drag

Photographic Logbook

JUNE 1, 2025

A common theme in pilot conversations around the Williamson-Sodus Airport, from our Chief Instructor through pilots of all experience levels, is the general observation that weather forecasting this year has been terrible. Although we deemed the ceiling adequate for the journey, pilots used a variety of tactics to manage it.

Airplanes

Flying Magazine

JULY 11, 2025

Besides having the desire, the curious sim pilot will need to dedicate some free time to learning the basics of the airplane’s operation and systems, and it is here that the PMDG DC-6 really shines. This allows the DC-6 to be flown by both the novice and advanced sim pilot, making the DC-6 approachable despite the complete systems modeling.

Flight Deck

Fear of Landing

JULY 25, 2025

V 1 (take-off decision speed): 114 knots V R (rotation speed): 118 knots V 2 (take-off safety speed): 126 knots The captain arrived at the cockpit. The aircraft lifted sharply into the air, travelling just under 120 knots computed airspeed, just above the computed V R (rotation speed). The accident flight’s 6.5°/second

Ferry Flight

Aerotime

NOVEMBER 22, 2024

At this point, the pilots will contact ATC for push and start clearance , allowing the plane to be pushed back from its parking position (if applicable, depending on the airport) and to start its engines in sequence. Once this message is conveyed to the pilots, they disengage the aircraft’s parking brake, hence the ‘ wobble ’.

Cabin Crew

Vintage Aviation News

SEPTEMBER 19, 2024

The massive project, of course, begs many questions for pilots and aviation enthusiasts alike. With more than two decades since the last DC-3 floatplane flight, there were no more living DC-3 floatplane pilots. How does it perform? Is it absurdly heavy? “I honestly don’t know yet,” Eric says.

Rudder

Fear of Landing

JUNE 28, 2024

A private pilot and passenger planned an outing in the Cabri G2 which was owned and operated by Swiss Helicopter AG. The pilot had trained for his private license with Swiss Helicopter in 2018. The pilot and his passenger arrived at the airport around 13:00 local time for the pleasure flight. The weather was clear.

Rudder

Air Facts

JULY 15, 2024

Though wind is reported using such simple numbers like 270@15G20, I’ve come to believe that 20 knots here is not always the same as 20 knots there. I did a checkride in 30 knot winds in the flatlands of Kansas, almost straight down the runway. Then came the landing in 20 knots in the Hill Country of Texas, west of Austin.

Crosswind

Air Facts

JANUARY 13, 2025

Richard Collins memorably wrote about Cirrus pilots in previous articlesboth what they do wrong and what they do right but here Ill focus on the airplane. Even the normally aspirated version (which is less popular than the turbo) climbs to 11,000 feet pretty easily, where it will cruise at over 160 knots on less than 15 gallons per hour.

Airplanes

Air Facts

MAY 24, 2024

With a little forward pressure on the yoke, I was able to keep the airplane on the runway to continue picking up airspeed as we arrived at my target of 60 knots for takeoff. As soon as we hit 60 knots indicated, I lightly pulled back on the yoke and the airplane popped right off the ground. No ceiling so no hold for us today!

Aileron

Plane and Pilot

SEPTEMBER 21, 2024

Robert Buck, whose books North Star Over My Shoulder and Weather Flying should be required reading yearly for pilots, pointed out that in his career, which spanned from World War II to retiring as a 747 captain, he could usually size up a fellow pilot’s abilities before they even got airborne.

Rudder