A couple of days ago I found a really great recipe in the Guardian Newspaper

This post addresses an issue that consumes a lot of discussion time among pilots, whenever they get together: the engine-failure-after-takeoff (EFATO) and the decision on whether to try to turn back to the runway, or to try to “land ahead”.

This post is prompted by someone who asked me recently that they wanted a more intuitive understanding of the concept of Angle of Attack from the perspective of the pilot.

Congratulations to my student Ivan who made his first solo today, in the Cherokee 140 of which he is a part owner.

TWENTY YEARS and three lifetimes ago I was in a puzzle shop in Camden Lock Market, Camden Town, London where I bought a curious item.

Military pilots (and some business jets) have a cool feature called a head-up display (HUD), which overlays a whole load of flight information like airspeed, an attitude indicator, vertical speed and other things over the view in front of the pilot out of the windshield.

Why do people find steep turns difficult? I’m going to suggest it’s because they’re not thinking about them the right way.

I must say, it’s tricky to teach people to land. Most manoeuvres that you have to learn in order to be a pilot can be practiced thousands of feet up in the air, where there’s no danger and no damage if things don’t work out, and where the instructor has plenty of time to fix things if and when they go wrong.

You’re in a small airplane in level flight at 100 knots. You increase power and pitch up to place the aircraft in a climb, at the same airspeed. Has the angle of attack increased, stayed the same, or decreased?

WITHOUT a doubt there are some fabulous fight instructors and schools in Canada. Unfortunately there are some pretty shabby ones, too.