Mixing It Up
You can have too many choices, so many that decisions get delayed. It’s usually not a big deal for simpler matters like cruise altitude—estimate...
Logging Sim Time
Back in 2018, the FAA expanded our ability to use training devices to maintain instrument currency. Incomprehensible distinctions between aircraft and various types of...
Proficiency Maneuvers
Robert, my student, called me the other day. He bases his Cirrus SR22T out of Eagle Colorado (KEGE). He wanted to know if I...
In A Pickle
Flight training isn’t just about learning the right way to do things. A huge portion concerns recovering when things go wrong—self-inflicted or otherwise.
For...
What is VMC?
While the Pilot’s Operating Handbook shows VMC for the aircraft, the VMC in flight varies depending on many conditions. It’s similar to the published...
Those Grey Areas
Most instrument trips end with one approach and one landing, after which you go about your day. For those times when one approach doesn’t...
ATC Uses Checklists too
What do operations of any two aircraft, be they a heavy Boeing 777 or the tiniest piston-engine light sport aircraft, have in common? Checklists,...
Done That Lately?
Exploring new places with your airplane can be fun, but sometimes that requires being comfortable with operations you don’t do often. It can also...
Two Up, Two Down
You can fly a lot of IFR these days without encountering anything but GPS approaches with LPV minimums. In this challenge, you’ll fly departures...
Build Your Own Sim, Pt. 4
You can think of your sim like a desktop operating system: By itself, it’s not extremely useful; only when you install third-party applications on...
IFR Muscle Builders
In the opening phases of World War II, our country was feverishly training pilots for war. Thousands of cadets earned coveted US Army Air...
Augmented Reality
These Sim Challenges have been accused of creating “gotchas” to catch the unsuspecting—and rightly so. That’s part of the game. So we decided it...