Category Archives: General
Cirrus SR22 demo flight: initial impressions
I spent a bit over an hour today flying a spanking-new Cirrus SR22-GTS, courtesy of Easy Air Share, which is setting up a fractional ownership program here in Ottawa. I flew in the left seat with Floyd, a production test … Continue reading
Analog Flying
I was recently reading yet another review about the glass cockpits starting to appear in general aviation aircraft, when one comment struck me — the review mentioned how much pilots rely on the position of needles on analog (steam) gauges, … Continue reading
Upcoming changes to Canadian airspace
Nav Canada has a whole bunch of proposed changes in its National Level of Service Report from last October (which I’ve noticed only now — here’s a link directly to the full 96-page PDF report). The report proposes revoking many … Continue reading
Posted in General
2 Comments
Canadian Airport Diagrams Online
U.S. airport diagrams for all airports with instrument approaches have been available online for a while, along with all U.S. instrument procedures (SIDs, STARs, approaches, etc.); recently, official PDF versions became available which do not go fuzzy when you blow … Continue reading
Posted in General
2 Comments
No Glamour
Kris Johnson, a student pilot, has a post about the lack of glamour in being a pilot. Instead of the soft leather jacket, silk scarf, and rougish smile, it’s a big, clumsy headset, googly sunglasses, and trying to find a … Continue reading
Posted in General
3 Comments
Local U.S. FSS Numbers
The U.S. Airport/Facility Directory consistently lists 1-800-WX-BRIEF as the phone number for any Flight Service Station (FSS). Unfortunately, the toll-free numbers don’t work for a Canadian cell phone, even when you’re in the U.S. — that makes life hard when … Continue reading
Posted in General
5 Comments
Flying into the Wind
A comment by a fellow pilot got me thinking about headwinds and tailwinds. I started flying with serious misconceptions about how a headwind or tailwind affects a flight, and some of the bogus rules of thumb only makes things worse. … Continue reading
Hope Air
Last week, I flew my first flight for Hope Air, a charity similar to Angel Flight in the United States and British Columbia. An icy, snow December is a strange time to start on something like that — many of … Continue reading
Posted in General
2 Comments
Winterization
With Halloween and the end of Daylight Savings Time closing in, it’s time to start getting my plane, my house, and myself ready for the winter. A lot of pilots put their planes away until spring but I like to … Continue reading
Do you like your ADF? (Not as much as these guys.)
The ADF radio, vintage 1940’s AM radio-direction-finding technology, inspires a lot of love and hate among pilots. Some pilots twitch violently when they remember the trauma of partial-panel NDB approaches during instrument training, some love the simplicity of the little … Continue reading
Land and Hold Short 