VFR Mastery Archive - PilotWorkshops

72. Rocky Mountain Milestone

Instructors: JP Dice

You know high-altitude flying, as it’s where you trained. You have a capable airplane and a clear plan in mind. The devil is in the details when it comes to calculated performance, though, and a few extra degrees can make all the difference in getting off the pavement.

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71. Which Way Into the Wild?

Instructors: David Gagliardi

Flying through Alaska is a bucket list item for many pilots in the lower 48. Before you can fly through Alaska, you have to get to Alaska. What’s simple and direct exposes you to dire consequences, and what’s roundabout has hidden compromises. Which way will you go?

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70. Next Step, Climb?

Instructors: Paul Bertorelli

How hot is too hot in an airplane with simple engine instrumentation and showing no other sign of distress? What do you do when the POH guidance provides no useful guidance at all. Is this an emergency, business as usual, or something in between?

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69. Something’s Come Up

Instructors: Catherine Cavagnaro

Passenger airsickness is an annoyance that almost every pilot has had to deal with at one time or another. Landing ASAP is the rule, but VFR above the clouds complicates the execution. The passenger might not be the only problem as well. Maybe you shouldn’t have ordered the fish.

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68. Diamond in the Rough (Air)

Instructors: Steve Tupper

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.

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67. A Swift Decision

Instructors: Dave Hirschman

A pre-takeoff briefing exists to remove hesitation and doubt from split-second emergency decisions after takeoff. The problem is that most real-world departures present several opportunities to go off script. Some of those improvisations could turn an off-field crash into an uneventful runway landing—or a disaster.

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66. A Slippery Situation

Instructors: Kevin Plante

The saying is that when in doubt, you should go around. Does that include after the airplane is on the runway? What about when the runway is a sheet of ice, with the airplane sliding sideways towards a snowbank and nearly certain damage?

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65. A Fuel’s Errand?

Instructors: Paul Bertorelli

Flight planning is a fine balance between thinking through every possibility and going with the flow. When a fuel stop reveals the fuel isn’t flowing at the pump, will you backtrack with a tailwind or press on with a “creative solution”? Or is it time to exercise Plan C?

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64. Chilling in Gothenburg

Instructors: Tom Turner

After an unplanned overnight at a small Nebraska airport, you start a takeoff run for the remaining trip in clear skies and cold air. The airplane doesn’t seem to have its normal vigor at rotation speed and wallows into the air. Then it climbs normally—while the airspeed goes to zero. Is this a big deal […]

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63. How Will You Get to Herlong?

Instructors: Wally Moran

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?

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62. Sightless in Seattle

Instructors: Kevin Plante

It’s another installment of “You are the controller.” In today’s episode, you’re the lifeline for a VFR pilot who is stuck in IMC. Do you provide guidance the pilot requested—direct to the nearest airport—when you’re certain that’s not the best solution? And if not, what will you offer to a pilot who’s barely holding it […]

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61. Just 200 Miles to Burlington

Instructors: JP Dice

You and a friend have made it nearly across the country in a recently purchased Tomahawk. Now scattered thunderstorms complicate the last leg home—where your friend needs to be by sundown. Is there a route that allows enough flexibility to weave your way home safely or should your friend find a rental car?

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