Monthly Archives: October 2019

A friend of mine has forwarded an email to me between him and some local pilots who still feel we should be flying wooden gliders with pellet variometers. Maybe they moved forward a generation but decided 1975 is where we should stay. Let’s look at doing some modernization of the instrument panel. All of the German manufactures are even making it easier to do the upgrades with TechNotes to help with

Last week I talked about where to look when thermalling, but the main emphasis was on scanning and using the nose as your primary instrument. This week will be an emphasis on how to incorporate that and not trade paint with anyone. I know everyone’s favorite racing movie is Days of Thunder, thankfully car racing is not like racing gliders, and there should be no rubbin, no bumping, no nudging, no trading

In instrument flying, you have what is called the Primary Instruments. Which is the most useful instrument for that phase of flight? The heading indicator and the altimeter are primary instruments when flying straight and level. The idea is that you scan between the attitude indicator and heading indicator and the attitude indicator and altimeter. We are going to use other instruments, but those are

When you look down and ahead to your left, you see a lake; you are not over it yet. However, when pilots call on the radio, they claim they are over it. The lack of position knowledge leads to some confusion, especially when it is a radio call when entering the pattern. Based on experience at uncontrolled airports, saying ‘entering the 45’ narrows your position down to about five sq miles, which doesn’t

What is the most unsafe seat configuration in a cockpit? 2 CFI’s at the controls. Two experienced pilots at the controls are thinking the other is flying. Generally, when a student is flying, it is evident because the controls are always being thrown around, but a smooth experienced pilot you might not notice at first.

 Don’t let go

In the first lesson with a new student, we