Radar Contact

“Dice right, ice cream, alert, 654 Jose. . . Brown Richmond 96 double . . . hut hut!” What?! I’ll give you a hint: Football and air traffic control. Here’s another hint: trying to understand Tower’s instructions does not have be painful if you know what is coming next. If that still doesn’t make any […]

My article, “Walk the Talk” is in the March issue of Flight Training magazine. Pilot (calling Tower): “Cessna 9130 Delta, request left closed traffic.” Tower: “Cessna 9130 Delta, make right closed traffic. Report a midfield right downwind.” Pilot: “Cessna 9130 Delta, right closed traffic. We’ll report a midfield right downwind.” Then, talking to himself, “What’s […]

Proximity of Clark Downtown (Taney County) Airport to Branson Airport, Missouri. Last week a listener wrote to tell me about an incident in which a general aviation aircraft landed at the wrong airport. He said this reminded him of other incidents in which airplanes ended up landing at the wrong airport. He asked me what […]

Cessna 9130, move rook to King 1. I’m afraid I can’t do that Dave. Air traffic control is voice-activated flying. Don’t believe me? Consider this. You’re about to enter a tower-controlled airport pattern. Tower says, “Cessna 9130 Delta enter a right base, Runway 36.” In response, you fly towards the entry point for a right […]

“Shhh! I’m trying to use the phone radio” Borrowed from “Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure.” In this week’s show, we are going to talk about something called sterile cockpit and how it helps you communicate with ATC. No, Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee, will not be making an appearance, but we can learn something from […]

This photo has nothing to do with this article. A photo of an A-10 just increases the overall quality of the website. You are approaching an uncontrolled airport traffic pattern and you need to know where other pilots are in the traffic pattern. How do you get that information? Two ways. You call on the […]

Round dial versus glass. Boeing 767-300 (top) and Boeing 767-400 (bottom). Learning to talk to air traffic control on the radios can be tough. Learning to talk to ATC on the radios while learning to fly a new airplane is even harder. Learning to talk to ATC, while learning to fly a new airplane, in […]

“Chestnut 372 Victor Charlie, you’re six miles north of the airport. Contact Propinquity Tower on 119.6.” That is how the switch from Approach Control to Tower Control should sound. Does it always happen that way? We’ll rip it apart in this week’s show and see what the pieces tell us. Last time in our story, […]

Hi-yo Silver! In this week’s show we are going to saddle up with the Lone Ranger and break out a lasso, I mean, LAHSO. I know, we should quit horsing around and get down to business. We’ve got masked heroes on horseback; we’ve got fireworks and exploding software; we’ve got your question of the week. […]

  Someone pinch me, I must be dreaming. A couple of weeks ago, the FAA published two draft proposals that will change the way you and I will train for our Private Pilot Certificate and for our Instrument Rating. If the wording in the proposals gets integrated into the regs, you will have to demonstrate […]