Category: Uncategorized
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Feet off the brakes!
Remember from your flight training days? Your flight instructor saying (‘yelling’) to keep your feet off the brakes or to put your heels on the ground were amongst the instructions that I would hear at every take off and before every landing. It was both an admonition as well as…
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Flying by Numbers
A concept that was made popular in the Bonanza and Baron world by John Eckalbar in his book Flying the Beech Bonanza is ‘Flying by Numbers’. The basic premise is that you no longer fly the plane by the seat of your pants, or based on constant variations in your…
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Caution: Visibility decreasing rapidly…
When discussing personal minimums with pilots, the aspects we discuss the most are ceiling above the runway, cross wind / gust factor limitations and sometimes we discuss currency / proficiency minimums. The aspect that is often overlooked is visibility minimums. Let me ask you to answer honestly: What is the…
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Stress and flying
Stress during an aviation emergency can cause the smartest and most experienced pilots to make deadly mistakes. Ever wondered why the smartest pilots always appear to be the ones commenting on aviation accidents from the comfort of their lazy chair? Even my writing this article could be considered an oxymoron.…
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Currency and Proficiency
It is almost spring! The sun will blast through the clouds, and will heat up the air. The winter fog will be lifting, and we will have the joys of lifting air and cumulonimbus reemerge in our airspace. Can’t wait for warmer weather! With that prospect, our flying season will…
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Bullet in wing near us
Just a quick and important briefing: Our club member Jessie shares a plane right near us at the South-t’s as well. He was just now pre-flighting this plane and found a bullet in the wing. This kind of thing has happened before, with a few bullet holes in the roofs…
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Take off clearance
Happy New Year! May 2024 bring you lots of health, happiness and good fortune! Watching the news today and seeing a Japanese airliner engulfed in flames reminded me of an aviation disaster story that I have been wanting to emphasize to you for a while. Thankfully, today the death toll…
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Weight and Balance
Weight and balance calculations are important always, but particularly when trying to maximize fuel and payload. The 172 is a very forgiving airplane with regard to balance. It is difficult to load the plane out of balance, but I am sure it can be accomplished by putting lead weights in…
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Fuel in the C172R
Of course all you REENO Aviators know all the details of the fuel system of the plane. So, please correct all my mistakes as you read along. The fuel system in the plane is a gravity fed system with an electric auxiliary fuel pump to prime, and an engine driven…