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.
Recently, a reader asked me to write an article on landing in high and gusty winds, and the time has come to do it. There probably are more ideas, theories and techniques for this than any other operation in flying…
As a pilot you have just completed a certification flight test, proficiency training, biennial flight review or evaluation by your favorite flight instructor and have been certified or declared proficient as a pilot. This process included many maneuvers and operations…
Last month I discussed some flying concepts I considered important, but not substantive enough to warrant a complete article. I would like to continue with more of these kinds of ideas for improving the safety of flight and/or making life…
After 14 years of writing this column, it sometimes becomes difficult to come up with new subjects. However, there are some topics I keep wanting to talk about, but I always seem to find they are not material for a…
The events of Sept. 11 were not only tragic, but they put a tremendous burden on the entire general aviation community. Severe restrictions on flight activities and some poor and inaccurate press about the flight training received by the alleged…
In my flying career, I have seen tremendous strides forward in almost every aspect of aviation. Many are obvious, such as turbine engines, and pressurized light twins and single engine airplanes. In general aviation, the biggest improvement has come in…