John E. McLain

Prior to his retirement as a career flight instructor, John McLain accrued over 18,000 flight hours of which more than 13,000 were dual given. He has conducted over 4000 flight tests in his twenty-five years as a Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE). These articles first appeared in The Southern Aviator and are reprinted with John’s permission.

A blue and white plane is parked on the runway

Be Careful of GPS

I came back recently from Myrtle Beach, S.C., to Raleigh Durham, N.C., in a Cessna 150 with a single nav/com radio, in solid instrument conditions, and terminating in a 600-1 VOR approach. Back in the early days of my flying…

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Two men standing next to a small airplane.

Advice Heeded

This year is my 45th year as a pilot. In that time, I have benefited greatly from the advice and guidance of many experienced pilots. Recently I unpacked all of my old log books and went through them, enjoying the…

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Mitch Plyler solo flight at KHNZ

Back to Basics

Over the past year or so while conducting flight tests and recurrent training, I've noticed an alarming trend: the almost total dependence on advanced navigation systems such as GPS, flight data systems, and the so-called glass cockpits. While these are…

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Two men standing next to each other in a room.

Complacency

The toughest flight test by any standards is the Private Pilot Flight Test. This starts from square one. The applicant is not assumed to have demonstrated any aviation knowledge or skill beforehand. Through oral and in-flight testing, he or she…

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