VFR Mastery Archive - PilotWorkshops

89. Final Approach Throwdown

Instructors: Dave Hirschman

Everyone has their recipe for a perfect landing, and the mix of ingredients vary from plane to plane. The instructor recommendations are usually the best starting point when you’re checking out on a new model. What will you do when the CFI’s recommendations don’t make sense, but you still need that signoff to fly your […]

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88. Uncivil Twilight

Instructors: Wally Moran

It’s a short flight on a clear morning, departing just before sunrise. It’s one of those mornings where things are running well and the tower controller has time to banter on the radio. The only other traffic is an airplane on approach to a nearby airport—or so everyone thought. Now it’s dead ahead and landing.

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87. Carb Heat Calculus

Instructors: Catherine Cavagnaro

Is use of carb heat a routine procedure or a response to an emergency? You can remedy the situation, but it’s bound to return in the same conditions. POH guidance and tribal knowledge disagree on the best way to proceed. You’re alone at the controls with miles to go, so only you can decide.

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86. Let’s Not Have an Accident

Instructors: David Gagliardi

Urgent situations come in all shapes and sizes. Of course, the small-sized people on our airplanes can create these in unexpected (and sudden) ways. No problem, there’s an airport nearby. The issue is the two other aircraft in position to land ahead of you—both of whom happen to be gliders.

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85. Déjà View at the Vineyard

Instructors: Kevin Plante

You’re about to fly a route that’s infamous for one of GA’s best-known accidents. But this is different: You have more training, better equipment, and the benefit of knowing what could happen if things go wrong. Of course, that means things do go wrong, revealing an enormous hole in your safety net.

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84. MOA or Marathon?

Instructors: Steve Tupper

The rules say you can fly through an MOA, but conventional wisdom is you should avoid one if it’s hot, right? Sometimes that’s inconvenient or downright impossible. What then? Is ATC your ally on this—or something to avoid? Surely they wouldn’t let you wander in if it was truly dangerous, but what are the consequences?

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83. Stuck Between the Showers

Instructors: David Gagliardi

It really seemed like a sound plan at departure. Now you’re hemmed in by clouds above and terrain to all sides. To make matters worse, your weather sources are in complete disagreement as to which airport offers the best chance of finding safe ground before running into a thunderstorm or a hillside.

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82. A Stand-Up Emergency

Instructors: Bret Koebbe

It’s the beginning of a long flight when the engine informs you it has other plans. Now the windscreen is covered with oil and you must act fast. Do you have time to return to your departure airport? If so, how will you approach and land given your forward visibility just dropped to zero?

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81. Flight Following Failure

Instructors: Kevin Plante

Flight following is the best way to get an extra set of eyes for traffic and keep in touch with ATC inside busy airspace. That’s why you planned your trip to use this valuable tool. So what’s your next move when ATC decides to cut you loose just when you need Flight Following the most?

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80. Aluminum Ridge

Instructors: Wally Moran

A smooth ride in clear skies takes a downturn when the airplane isn’t going to clear the next ridge. You can see the problem and know you must do something, but what will it be? Perhaps more importantly, what’s the best way to execute that plan?

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79. Having a Field Day

Instructors: Catherine Cavagnaro

Practice is the stuff of prevention when it comes to avoiding bad outcomes in flying. There is a catch, however: If your practice isn’t fully thought through, it can create exactly the situation you’re trying to prevent. Now you have little more than your reaction time to pick the strategy that separates a survivable ending […]

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78. The Heat of the Moment

Instructors: Colleen Sterling

Killing time on a routine flight, you explore some less-used pages on your engine monitor and make a surprising discovery. The reading seems sure to be wrong—especially because the airplane is happily ticking along—but what if it’s not? And if it is real … is this an emergency or just something to tell maintenance about […]

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