FAA and Nyquil

Medication update: FAA changes Nyquil-use guidelines

Here is some information on a recent change from the FAA regarding the use of Nyquil. A pilot now must wait 60 hours from the time that you take it until you can fly. This is some important information to keep in mind during this cold and flu season.

Checklists

As we watch this video it is easy to be like most of the people who have left comments and judge this pilot. But who of us have not made some mistake in the cockpit? Hopefully none of us will make this one but we have all made smaller ones. One of the easiest ways to insure that this does not happen to you is to simply use a checklist. We can get rushed, complacent, just plain lazy and skip items or not use the checklist at all.

Anytime you feel like skipping the checklist try and think of this video.

Save with FAA Combos!

Pilotstore.com offers several FAA Handbook combos to help save you money on these important study materials.

Every pilot regardless of experience level needs to stay on top of weather and weather reporting. The FAA Weather Combo includes the Aviation Weather book that is the standard for learning weather theory and the FAA Weather Services book which will help take the mystery out of decoding weather reports.

If you are a student pilot, a flight instructor or someone looking to keep your knowledge up to date then the Private Pilot Combo is for you. It includes the most current editions of the Airplane Flying Handbook and The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. The FAA had done a great job of making these handbooks easier to read and have added information on GPS and Technically Advanced Aircraft.

If you are looking to add an Instrument Rating in the near future the Instrument Pilot Combo is a must for you. It features the Instrument Flying Handbook which has all of the basic knowledge every instrument pilot needs and the Instrument Procedures Handbook that has information on advanced procedure and operations.

Each combo also includes a bonus of laminated quick reference cards.

Checkride Day Stress

A customer of ours is in doing the oral for his Private Pilot checkride. I remember being so nervous the morning of my checkride all those years ago. If all went well that day I would be a pilot in just a few hours. I was about to get into an airplane with someone new and he was going to judge me and my flying skills. I was excited, nervous, scared, and all other emotions you can think of and all at one time.

It was a long drive to the airport that morning. The questions popped into my head at that point. Is that a cloud on the horizon? Is it too windy? What is the difference between Vx and Vy? Are my charts current? Did I brush my teeth? I ended up turning up the radio and let Sheryl Crow distract me.

After getting to the airport I focused on the task at hand. I met the examiner, a man with a big smile and a pipe in his mouth, and we went to work.

I have been nervous before each checkride. But this customer taking his ride today has some extra stress in my eyes that I have never dealt with. His parents are sitting at a picnic table waiting and watching. I have never had that, I just had to make a call when things are all done.

While typing this he has now finished the oral and is getting in the plane with the examiner. Good luck kid, we are all pulling for you!
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Chicago skyline from Atlantic Aviation.

A sample of the view from Midway Airport today.
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On the ramp at Midway KMDW

I spent some time at Atlantic Aviation at Chicago's Midway Airport. The view of the Chicago Skyline from there is one of the best around.

Another great spot to watch airplanes at Midway is the parking lot of Giordano's Pizza on Cicero Ave. It is just off the center line of 31 Center and sometimes you feel like ducking when they come over head. If you get a window seat in the restaurant you have amazing pizza and a wonderful view. Not a bad combination.
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Here is a shot of the approach to Bob Hope Airport(KBUR) in Burbank, CA. This is from the cockpit of Falcon 50 and was taken recently by my buddy Tom.

Great Airport Community

Last night the Chicago area had some severe weather that caused a large portion of the airport to lose power for a good part of the day. One business got partial power before the rest of us and they offered up the use of their offices for us until our power came back.

It was great to see a business reach out to others when they too were being effected by the outage. Sometimes we forget what a great community we have at the airport.

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My cool new training aid!

I have to opportunity to teach an aviation class to a group of high school students. We recently had this cut away Continental engine donated to the program. This will be a great addition to our training aids!
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Groupon and Flight Schools

I am surprised at how often a Groupon offer comes up in our area featuring an introductory flight. It seems like a great way to promote your flight school if you can make the numbers make sense.

I recently spoke with a school that offered a one hour flight lesson, half hour of ground and a half hour of flight. They sold close to 400 flights over the winter months and it has worked out very well for them. They negotiated the Groupon fee and made sure that they would be able to handle a large influx of people coming through their doors. It was a success for them.

They have converted a couple of the groupon rides into new students and introduced the community to their business and the airport. It seems to have been a great thing for them.

Have any of you had any groupon aviation experiences?
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Twitter and breaking aviation news

This week was a bad one for Sun 'n Fun. The first part of the week had more than its fair share of rain and then it all came to a head with the sever thunderstorm and possible tornado on Thursday. I happened to be on twitter when the storm started to hit the airfield and the #snf11 hashtag was going crazy.

I watched as the first hand accounts of what was being seen were posted along with accompanying pictures. It was incredible to follow along. Shortly after things calmed down people started asking if they had seen or heard from various friends who were on the grounds of the fly in. It was great to see the general aviation community come together and check up on one another. The common thread of aviation brings so many people together from so many different backgrounds, it is not something that is easily found elsewhere.

If you are not on Twitter you should most certainly check it out. There some many neat people out there who help keep each other updated on what is happening in the industry. It is a great community and if you are not there come on and join us. There is always room for more.

Flying over the Midwest in a Falcon 50

An amazing sunset over the Midwest.

A Teterboro Sunset (KTEB)

This picture was taken by my friend Tom, a Falcon 50 pilot. He will be providing more images of the corporate pilot's life in the upcoming months. Check back soon!

5 Favorite Aviation Books

I was just looking over my list of books that I have read on Goodreads.com. Recently I was sitting around with a friend and we were talking about the five best books that we have ever read. It was a fun discussion and much time was spent questioning each others selections.

So now I will give you my selection of the five books that I think all pilots should have on their bookshelves. They are in no particular order.

1. Fate Is The Hunter by Ernest K. Gann

2. Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying by Wolfgang Langewiesche

3. Chickenhawk by Robert Mason

4. Airplane Flying Handbook by The FAA

5. Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck

Bell 47 Crop Duster

The cockpit of a Bell 47 helicopter used for crop dusting.
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Winter Flying

Living in the Northern Illinois area we get to spend a good part of the year dealing with cold weather.  Flying in the winter is one of those things that take a little extra work but is well worth the time and effort.  Some of the benefits include the increased performance, smoother air, lighter rental schedules, and the beauty of flying over the snow covered landscape.

On the flip side of winter flying is the extra time it takes to preheat the engine, the potential hassle of moving the aircraft around on snow covered ramp areas, and the sometimes painful task of doing a preflight outside.

If winter flying is new to you it is best to get the help from an experienced flight instructor who can help you do winter flying the right way. The FAA has a tip sheet on winter flying that is worth taking the time to read and study even if you are a seasoned winter flyer. Take a look at it here: FAA Winter Flying Tips.

Do not miss the chance to go out and enjoy the best that the cold weather has to offer, we will be complaining about heat and density altitude before we know it.

FlightPrep and other GA divisions.

FlightPrep has recently been the target of boycotts.  I have no problem with people doing that, FlightPrep has chosen to cause problems in general aviation at a time when we need to work together.  Avweb has also been guilty of causing divisions in GA with its recent attack on AOPA.  I think that it is one thing for businesses to compete and try and provide better products at better prices or at least creating a better value for the consumer.  But it appears that FlightPrep is trying to bully its way into a larger market share and that is not the way to do it in a small niche market such as General Aviation.  It will be interesting to see how all of this shakes out.


Boycott FlightPrep

AOPA's Guide to the Flight Review

It is amazing how quick 24 calendar months goes by and it is time for another flight review.  I have just scheduled mine for early March and am going to do it in a Piper Seminole.  This year I will just do the standard flight review with at least an hour ground instruction and an at least an hour of flight.

Over the years I have used several different methods for completing the requirements for the flight review including using the FAA Wings Program and getting additional ratings.  AOPA has produced a great guide to the flight review that lists all of the requirments and outlines the alternatives to doing a traditional flight review.  It is available free online in a PDF file, check it out here, AOPA  Pilot's Guide to the Flight Review.

New Instrument Rating Practical Test Standards FAA-S-8081-4E

The FAA has updated the Instrument Rating Practical Test Standards effective January 1, 2010.
The new update includes what they refer to as major enhancements. These include:

• Added abbreviations
• Added special emphasis area of icing hazards
• Changed Aeronautical Decision Making and Risk Management to a new Single-Pilot Resource Management
• Updated area of operation I to include Pilot Qualifications
• Modified task items to standardize phraseology as contained in the AIM
• Added a Judgment Assessment Matrix to the Appendix

The updated book is available at http://www.pilotstore.com

Positive Aircraft Control

The first special emphasis area listed on the Practical Test Standards is Positive Aircraft Control. At first glance this might seem like a simple thing that does not take much thought. We simply fly the airplane, how hard is that?

I have learned over past few years how difficult it can be when I started flying for an aerial photographer. He owns a Cessna 172 that has a hole in the bottom for doing vertical shots and he will sit in either the left or right seat for others. The flying is done at mostly lower altitudes and most of it is around or in Class B Airspace. It can get very busy very quickly, you are doing a lot of radio communications, always making sure that you are at the correct altitude for the airspace, you are also communicating with the photographer, and at times doing some low altitude steep turns in order to get the right shot all this while looking out for other traffic. It is so easy to focus on just one thing while doing this and then notice that the altitude is creeping up close to the floor of the next airspace or the airspeed had dropped off while you were looking outside and steepening a turn to make sure the building that he is shooting is in proper spot.

The FAA now has a course that you can take that will help you be more aware of Positive Aircraft Control. Take a look at it here: Positive Aircraft Control.The course also includes information on in flight distractions that examiners will use on checkrides so if you have one coming up or are recommending a student for one soon do yourself a favor and take a look at it.