Search results

I wonder why they provide this page: https://aviationweather.gov/data/pirep/ Screenshot: To use it, you must type in a "Center ID" -- and I don't know any. I've never actually had a use for one. And there's no pull-down menu to choose one. So, this page is useless for the intended purpose...

I’ve been hearing a plane circling the nearby football stadium during tonight’s Iowa-Michigan State football game, so I checked FlightAware. It’s a HT-295. Here’s the track at halftime:

Whenever I’m flummoxed by an abbreviation in a notam, if I’m on the ground, I can just google it. But how can I look it up while in flight? (I’m viewing using Foreflight, which translates pireps and TAFs into plain english, but I haven’t found a way to translate notams.)

I can't find anything in the FAA books that says how far from the runway a turbine will normally fly, on the downwind leg. I can only find this, in the AFH: The downwind leg is a course flown parallel to the landing runway, but in a direction opposite to the intended landing direction. This leg...

I have an AirTag on my plane’s key, in case I lose it while on a trip. I’m wondering if I should remove the AirTag before delivering my plane to a maintenance shop. The reason is that I learned* that an AirTag emits noises when it’s not near the phone it’s paired with. Maybe it would annoy the...

I often hear a tower instruct helicopters to land at your own risk on the ramp. Here’s what the FAA instructs controllers: “If landing is requested to an area not visible, an area not authorized for helicopter use, an unlighted nonmovement area at night, or an area off the airport, and...

Article in Popular Science about Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (GCAS) in the F22 and how it saved a disoriented pilot in IMC. https://www.popsci.com/technology/f-22-agcas-save-alaska/?amp Do any commercial or GA planes have anything like this, that takes the controls to recover...

Which gigs for commercial pilots have vanished over the years? Bank checks, maybe? I remember meeting someone decades ago who was flying checks every weeknight, in a twin. But I'm guessing that physical checks don't get sent much nowadays from one bank to another.

Using Foreflight on my iPhone, I found a curious bug with dates. I was looking at the MOS forecast, which goes several days out. I just wanted to see when it predicted snow would start falling this weekend, for my location. Well, it seems that after today (Thursday Dec. 30), according to...

Yesterday I finished updating my Basic Med record at AOPA, after taking the course two days earlier, then visiting the doctor yesterday and finally submitting to AOPA. After all that, AOPA's website told me this: Course Completion Required by: Nov 2023 Last course completion...

KMSY 300137Z AUTO 15054G78KT 1/4SM +RA BKN010 OVC016 24/ A2904 RMK AO2 PK WND 15078/0137 PRESRR P0042 T0239 RVRNO wind 54 gusting 78 is the strongest I found, in a quick look just now, and that’s at Louis Armstrong Intl. airport.

Using ForeFlight in the air, I see some pilot comments (for airports and FBOs), but not as many as when I’m on the ground. Anybody know why?

Tonight is the Field of Dreams game between the Yankees and White Sox outside the small town of Dyersville Iowa. It’s truly in the middle if cornfields. Dubuque KDBQ is the nearest towered airport. Usually it’s pretty sleepy, with occasional commuter flights and training by a college flight...

There's an interesting article at BBC about a plane being built to break the world speed record for electric aircraft. The existing record is only 185 knots (213 MPH, 342 km/h). That's for a 3 km course, which seems to me to be particularly well suited for electric power since a battery can put...

Today I took advantage of a stratus layer, just after a front had passed, to do some approaches in IMC. It was perfect for keeping current, with a ceiling of 1200’ pretty much everywhere nearby. I was the only traffic at my uncontrolled home field. While I was descending through the clouds at...

I’m finding my plane is becoming useless for much of my leisure travel because rental cars are often unavailable. While it’s not a problem if visiting a relative with wheels or a city center, it is a show stopper for outdoor destinations that have no other ground transportation. For example...

A Flying magazine article that came out a few days ago said: “ Most US pilots probably don’t know that an FAA license is required to conduct any kind of commercial space launch or reentry within the United States. Last year, the agency office that issues these permits said it was busier than...

St. Louis Lambert KSTL is Class Bravo. But it's normally not that busy (not since 2009, when American pulled its hub out of STL). And the GA runway is right next to the FBO. So normally it's a pretty easy airport for a small plane ... but you do get instructions like altitude and heading. Well...

Should I put the logbook sticker in my engine logbook, or my airframe logbook? This is after my electric boost pump was overhauled, with no other work performed besides removing and reinstalling.

On my new Apple Watch, I’d like to display the 24 hour zulu time, as a “complication,” in the corner of the “Simple” watchface. So far I’ve only tried the “ZuluTime” app, but it only shows 12 hours without minutes, as in the attached photo (lower left corner shows 11Z instead of 23:42Z)