Flight following should make your journey safer and easier. If not, participation is voluntary so you can always simply opt out, right? The truth is it’s not always that simple. An ATC instruction can create a conflict that’s not so easy to solve.
The weather is perfect and the flight is just a quick hop to pick up a friend. However, the destination airport is virtually surrounded by a fortress of Class C and D airspace. The communications and coordination could be a nightmare with two radios—and you only have one. Is there a simple and safe solution?
It’s on almost every pilot’s bucket list: Airventure at Oshkosh. Before you can land on the dot, however, you’ll have to fly a complex arrival procedure and avoid all the other aircraft doing the same. What will you do when the procedure says one thing but safety might dictate something else?
It seemed like a good idea at the time: Expand your comfort zone with busy Class C airspace by meeting your friend at Fort Lauderdale International. Now you’re sandwiched between a stream of incoming jets thinking there’s wake turbulence you can’t see but must avoid. How will you avoid turning upside-down when you turn final?
Many times the decision isn’t “go/no-go” so much as “how to go?” Instead of risk versus reward, you’re weighing a safe but boring option against something more appealing yet less squarely in your comfort zone. How will you square the issues of traffic, airspace, weather, low-altitude flight, and potential anxiety in this trip through NYC?
Some pilots won’t fly VFR at night because there are just too many traps when you can’t see the terrain. You don’t have an Instrument Rating, but you know some of the procedures. Would it be wiser to use a “bit of IFR” to make a safe departure or rely on your VFR experience plus […]
It’s time to leave the New Mexico high country, but a flat tire means a delay while you wait on the repair. Meanwhile, the temperature on the ramp just keeps climbing. Will your turbocharger alone be enough to counteract the high-density altitude, or will you adjust your plan for a safe departure?
This power-off landing is just for bragging rights at a local spot landing contest. You could win it if you adjust for the headwinds, yet an early error makes the target seem just out of reach. But maybe there’s a way if you can make the right correction.
You’re in the descent to your destination airport, where you have an appointment for your first ever tandem jump skydive. As you plan to cross the airport and enter the pattern, you hear a call of “Jumpers away”—probably from over your head. Do you need to change plans, or is an evasive action the worst […]
Lowering ceilings and patchy showers have you pushing the limits of VFR along the shore of Lake Erie. The weather is much better along the north shore, but that’s Canada, and you don’t have a passport or permission from Customs and Border protection. Will you press on, turn around, or cross the fence in clear—but […]
It’s a perfect day for a flight to Yellowstone National Park, but the choice of route is anything but clear. Will you go high or low? Will you go direct or take one of the long ways around? How will you weigh the risks and benefits for a flight out and back in the high […]
A day of fair-weather flying, tailwinds, and an on-airport restaurant with the tastiest barbecue in the county: What could be better? The after-lunch departure, however, leaves you deciding between departing uphill and upwind, or downhill and downwind. Trees off one runway end complicate matters further. Don’t wait too long; this fair weather won’t last.
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