pilotscafe

Starting tomorrow (September 30th 2010), the ATC radio phraseology "taxi into position and hold" will no longer be issued to aircraft at US airports. Instead, tower controllers will instruct pilots to "line up and wait" when cleared onto a runway prior to takeoff. This is part of a series of changes the FAA enacted in an effort to streamline procedures and regulations with other ICAO countries. Just a few weeks ago, the agency issued changes concerning runway taxi clearances. Under the ne...

Building flight time is one of the major challenges you'll face during your pilot's career. In this article, I'll cover some of the top ways to build your flight experience. In particular, there are a few types of flight times that you need to build, depending on your goals: Total flight time Pilot-in-command flight time Multi engine flight time, and Instrument flight time Cross country flight time. It seems to never stop as later in your career you'll need turbine time or 121 PIC ...

The new FAA runway taxi phraseology went into effect on June 30th, 2010. This article highlights the changes. Visit http://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Notice/N7110.528.pdf for more information. You'll be issued a specific instruction to either cross or hold short of each runway on your taxi route. ATC will no longer let you cross multiple runways. Instructions to cross each runway would be given one at a time. The phrase "taxi to" will no longer be used for taxiing to departure runwa...

The FAA announced today the following changes to standard taxi instruction phraseology: Effective June 30, 2010, air traffic controllers will no longer use the term “taxi to” when authorizing aircraft to taxi to an assigned takeoff runway. With the change, controllers must issue explicit clearances to pilots crossing any runway (active/inactive or closed) along the taxi route. In addition, pilots crossing multiple runways must be past the first runway they are cleared to cross before controlle...

Effective July 24, 2008, the FAA extended the validity period of pilot medical certificates. This change will allow some pilots to visit the aviation medical doctor less often.

Just a couple of years ago, the typical flight school airplane was using technologies that have changed very little since the 1950s. Even newly manufactured airplanes still had the standard six pack mechanical instruments. However, this changed dramatically when systems such as the Garmin 1000 and Avidyne Entegra quickly took over the General Aviation market. Today, you can find Technically Advanced Aircraft (TAA) with sophisticated glass cockpit avionics almost everywhere.

The FAA publishes its US Terminal Procedure charts on the National Aeronautical Charting Office(NACO) website. This is a great service but requires you to download each chart separately.

Antares DLR-H2, the first manned aircraft able to takeoff and fly powered by fuel cells took its first flight this week on July 7 in Hamburg, Germany.

Being a pilot requires constant learning and practice. Starting from your initial private pilot checkride through flight reviews to type ratings and airline training, these techniques will not only make the study process easier, they will make it more efficient. They will make you a better pilot.

The Transition, a small aircraft that converts into a car is scheduled for testing by Terrafugia, a Woburn, Massachusetts based company. The vehicle's wings can extend and retract and transform the roadable car into a fixed-wing airplane and vice-versa in only a few minutes.

As a car, the transition will be able to reach speeds of 90 MPH. As an airplane, it can fly at 115 MPH with a range of 500 miles.