Inflight Pilot Training

MARCH 30, 2025

Youll learn how to navigate, communicate with Air Traffic Control, interpret weather, and conduct instrument approaches to airports, all without relying on whats outside your window. This rating adds an entirely new dimension to your skillsetand makes you a true all-weather aviator. What Is an Instrument Rating? Flight canceled.

Pilot

Pilot Institute

FEBRUARY 15, 2025

Before RNAV, pilots had to rely on radios (NAVAIDs) and antennas on the ground such as VORs (Very High-Frequency Omnidirectional Range) and NDBs (Non-Directional Beacons). Lateral guidance tells you to go left or right to align yourself with the runway. How do the approaches differ from each other? So, when do you make that switch?

Approach

Air Facts

JUNE 4, 2025

Inside the FBO, I grabbed a cup of coffee and checked the weather briefing one last time. Taxiing to Runway 06, I ran through the before-takeoff checklist: fuel selector both, flaps up, mixture rich, lights on. I tuned the Manila VOR to confirm my position and set up the next waypoint. I filed my flight plan and headed out.

Altimeter

Pilot's Life Blog

JUNE 17, 2025

When you search for flight instructors near Mesa, you’ll find that consistent good weather means fewer lesson cancellations and more time in the air. Its history as a World War II training base adds to its charm, with well-maintained runways, modern air traffic control, and a nearby aviation museum that keeps the spirit of flying alive.

Checkride

Photographic Logbook

JUNE 29, 2025

During the fall of 2024, I planned a flight to Massey Aerodrome (MD1) in Maryland that I cancelled due to weather. From above, the existing configuration of Delaware Coastal Airport (GED, #286) suggested that it once possessed three main runways arranged in a triangular fashion consistent with mid-20th century military airfields.

Runway

Air Facts

JUNE 23, 2025

One day, I was on a training flight with a new student when we got a Return To Base (RTB) call due to bad weather moving in. I turned back and entered the holding pattern over the VOR where the approach to Whiting Field began. The third one saw the runway but couldn’t land. Then the runway. Two pilots landed successfully.

Altimeter

Air Facts

JULY 23, 2025

What would really make it stressful was the weather. Eight of these would be non-precision VOR and fixed-card NDB approaches flown to minimums in a non-radar environment. With the weather checked, flight plans filed, and paperwork complete, we walked out of flight operations and headed for the airplane.

NDB

Pilot Institute

NOVEMBER 19, 2024

Are you curious about flying a VOR approach? If you’re aiming to master instrument-rated flying, it’d be valuable to learn about VOR approaches. We’ll cover what a VOR approach is, how to fly it step-by-step, and even whether GPS can replace it in today’s navigation. Ready to make VOR approaches easy?

VOR

Flying Magazine

MAY 15, 2024

If utilizing Runway 17 with left traffic, the crosswind turn will be heading 080, downwind 350, base 260, etc. Don’t accept the excuses of “I can’t fly if I can’t see the runway,” or “I can’t feel the airplane.” In the ATD the scenario begins by having the pilot check the weather before takeoff. It’s an ATD. What could go wrong?

Crosswind

Flight Training Central

OCTOBER 14, 2024

For a flight under IFR or a flight not in the vicinity of an airport, weather reports and forecasts, fuel requirements, alternatives available if the planned flight cannot be completed , and any known traffic delays of which the pilot in command has been advised by ATC.

Ceiling

Flying Magazine

MAY 6, 2024

Subscribe Now Featured A) Two Radials Depicted From the STL VOR, there are two radials depicted that intersect with the final approach path—the R-144 and the R-194. Transitioning from the TOY VOR is also a heavy line radial along the R-261 and notes that no procedure turn would be needed (NoPT).

VOR

Air Facts

FEBRUARY 24, 2025

We did all the preplanning, rented a Piper Warrior, checked weather forecasts three times daily, and it did not look good, so we didnt tell many we were going. Frank and I flew out of Grand Island, Nebraska early Saturday morning and the weather looked good to Omaha. He replied that it was cloudy but that he could see for miles.

Weather

Pilot Institute

MARCH 13, 2025

Glass cockpit HSIs integrate maps, weather, and traffic for better situational awareness. You can use the CDI with navigation aids like VOR (VHF Omnidirectional Range) or GPS. We wont explain technical details, so you may not understand the example if you havent used a VOR. Q: What is the difference between a VOR and a HSI?

VOR

Air Facts

SEPTEMBER 13, 2024

The instructor was able to complete the turn, but the airplane overshot the runway. The pilot flying wrote, “After completing the turn back to the field we saw the airport environment and we were located over the runway but more than halfway down runway 17. The scenario was that the pilot was returning due to weather.

Gross Weight

Pilot Institute

DECEMBER 4, 2024

That’s because each one assists you in navigating to the runway based on the weather and your aircraft equipment. When flying an LPV approach, your GPS provides accurate vertical and lateral guidance as low as 200 feet above the runway. Weather Conditions When should you choose one approach type over another?

Approach

Photographic Logbook

APRIL 19, 2024

This year, a promising weather forecast featuring high freezing levels (expected to be 9,000+ feet) led to a decision to fly myself. The day before departure, satisfied that days of consistent weather forecasts reasonably assured a successful flight, I cancelled the rental car reservation. Seneca and Cayuga Lakes in the gloom.

Approach

WayMan

NOVEMBER 8, 2024

This is a predetermined routing path of an aircraft from the departure runway onto an enroute airway. For example, a typical SID could read: “Fly runway heading to 3,000 feet, then radar vectors to the airway.” For example, “Fly runway heading to 3,000 feet, then DIRECT XYZ VOR.”

Pilot

Air Facts

OCTOBER 30, 2024

I’d get a full flight briefing, regardless of the weather. The flying club’s Cessnas and Pipers stood out like a flock of scrawny pigeons as the eagles of Pan Am, TWA, British Airways, and the like lumbered by on their way to and from the runways. Then came the long taxi to the runway. But it wasn’t all hood work with Charlie.

NDB

Photographic Logbook

JULY 11, 2024

However, a forecast for low IFR weather in that part of Maine led us to cancel it. I had no interest in flying one hour north only to be shut out of our destination by weather below minimums for the available instrument approach procedure. We made an IFR departure that morning on runway 16 and climbed above the ceiling in short order.

Ceiling

Pilot Institute

MAY 1, 2024

The heading contains the city, state, airport, runway, and approach name. The weather can change, and approach equipment can fail. Are there runway closures? ATIS broadcasts usually include active runways, available approaches, important NOTAMs, and the weather. Get the destination weather as soon as possible.

Approach

iPad Pilot News

JUNE 3, 2025

and any adjustments to be made (runway lighting out of service, remote altimeter setting, etc.). Details shows communication frequencies, runway length, general notes, and expiration dates. This includes inbound course, DA/MDA, runway lighting (with a helpful graphic to decode the acronym), runway length, and touchdown zone elevation.

NOTAMs

Pilot Institute

DECEMBER 12, 2024

Or you might stray off course and into bad weather or obstacles. If you have weather information Charlie, then you say youre with Charlie. For example: Pilot: Seattle Approach, Cessna November Four Five One Romeo, Two Zero miles west of Seattle VOR, at 8,000, with Sierra, to land. Cleared ILS runway six approach.

Approach

Pilot Institute

AUGUST 9, 2024

This can be for spacing or other reasons, such as waiting for adverse weather conditions to pass. Most holding fixes are NAVAIDs such as VORs, RNAV (GPS) waypoints, and even ILS markers. When VORs are used as holding fixes, the fix is usually a specific DME distance on a particular radial.

VOR

Gary's Flight Journal

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

I've been going through weather updates and long range forecasts for the last two weeks along with reviewing approaches and alternates for our flight. For now we are on hold until the weather opens up a bit to allow a safe departure and a better chance at returning if needed. The MOS weather shows rain ending by 8am, we shall see.

Clearance

Pilot Institute

APRIL 24, 2024

From entry and weather requirements to interacting with ATC, we have you covered. Airports such as ATL and JFK have multiple runways and cover around 5,000 acres of land. If flying under IFR, you’ll need a VOR or TACAN receiver, or an RNAV system (GPS). Keeping track of all the rules and regulations might seem like too much.

Clearance

Photographic Logbook

JULY 6, 2024

We had excellent weather for the trip to College Park and the scenery was beautiful as we flew through the Finger Lakes Region, across the ruffled landscape of central Pennsylvania, and into Maryland. Proceeding into Pennsylvania, we saw obvious examples of the terrain manufacturing weather. En Route Seneca Lake. Tough room.

Pilot

Photographic Logbook

OCTOBER 10, 2023

It was not an inspiring morning to fly out of Sodus, but I knew that the poor weather was localized to the Lake Ontario shore and that Washington DC was forecast to be sunny and significantly warmer. Just north of the Selinsgrove VOR, Harrisburg called with the first change in routing. No problem, I had that covered.

Transponder

AeroSavvy

AUGUST 20, 2021

Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six Navigation equipment includes a Garmin GNS-530W GPS navigator and two VOR receivers for secondary navigation. ADS-B provides real-time traffic information and almost-live NEXRAD radar and weather data. After 50 minutes, we were taxiing to the runway. Our initial climb rate was 500-600 feet/minute.

Density Altitude

Photographic Logbook

OCTOBER 19, 2023

Since then, the former airbase has seen its runways either truncated (9-27), deleted (15-33), or transformed into taxiways (4-22). Today, it is home to the Canada Aviation and Space Museum (CASM, part of the broader Ingenium collection of museums in Ottawa) housed within a 1988 facility built along former runway 22 (taxiway D).

Runway

Gary's Flight Journal

MAY 3, 2024

I launched from runway three-two and pointed for the Snow Hill VOR. We flew on top of a scattered turned broken layer having to descend through it to break out for the visual approach runway two-three into our fuel stop at Grand Strand KCRE. On departure I flew runway heading for a good distance. What a nice guy.

Runway

Photographic Logbook

OCTOBER 11, 2024

With gusty winds forecast along the eastern seaboard on October 11, I let the weather prognostic chart suggest a different course. West of the Geneseo VOR, I passed high above Silver Lake and the gorge in Letchworth State Park. Closer to South Bass Island, the Put-In-Bay Airport (runways 3-21) appeared along the southeastern shore.

Runway

Fear of Landing

NOVEMBER 22, 2024

I hope you enjoy her account of navigating instrument failure in severe weather conditions – a situation that would test any pilot’s skills and nerve. How I conquered malfunctioning instruments in bad weather…on a scheduled flight that should’ve never taken off! ” He ignores me.

Weather

Plane and Pilot

AUGUST 8, 2024

It seemed to continue this way until we finally rolled onto the runway and got to the good part. You check the weather, get information Charlie, and then tune up tower frequency. Enter left downwind Runway 18, report midfield.” More chatter from the right seat was followed by tinny gargling from the voice in my headset.

Aeronautical Information Manual

Photographic Logbook

OCTOBER 19, 2023

I taxied to the departure end of runway 27, ran-up the airplane, and broke ground exactly at 3:00 pm as planned. My filed route to Ogdensburg was via YOW (the Ottawa VOR) and IKLAX. With connector taxiways Bravo 1 and Bravo 2 obstructed, I back taxied down the 6,400 foot long runway and past the painting crew.

Approach

Pilot Institute

DECEMBER 19, 2024

This technology provides reliable navigation in various weather conditions and increases safety during important flight phases such as landing and other flight operations. Traditional ground-based navigational aids like VOR and ILS stations are costly to maintain and require extensive infrastructure. How does WAAS make flying safer?

Approach

Pilot Institute

APRIL 26, 2024

It’s used for aircraft registration, airport taxiways, holding points, weather broadcasts, and more. Touch and go – aircraft lands on the runway and then accelerates to take off again. If it’s a taxi clearance, familiarize yourself with routes to the active runway. Taxi to runway zero-five via Delta, Charlie.

Clearance

Plane and Pilot

AUGUST 8, 2024

It seemed to continue this way until we finally rolled onto the runway and got to the good part. You check the weather, get information Charlie, and then tune up tower frequency. Enter left downwind Runway 18, report midfield.” More chatter from the right seat was followed by tinny gargling from the voice in my headset.

Aeronautical Information Manual