Yesterday's flight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNtIW_4VeVQ Video starts with me picking up a local IFR clearance and ends with me canceling my IFR and doing a circle to land VOR Alpha approach back into Madison MS. Also included is how I handle a gentle prod to approach controller for a...

Can Clearance Delivery (through an RCO on the ground) give a pop-up IFR instead of Approach? So far I have found that they ask me to call Approach when airborne, or file with FSS. Is there an operational consideration that prevents CD from giving a pop-up?

Howdy, I fly a Cirrus SR22, an all-electric plane. It has dual-redundant power busses, which makes total electrical failure unlikely, but if it does happen in IMC it can really ruin your day, so I'm thinking about a backup plan. Obviously a portable GPS and Comm unit are first on the priority...

Short video of my first flight after an annual. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iUmd4LjXow Absolutely amazing how 6 pounds in the tail cone can improve my landings. I had 45 pounds in the cargo to bring the CG aft. I now was able to remove all of that weight due to a measily 6 pounds in...

This weekend, I'm flying almost due south 340 nm from Ottawa to Philadelphia, as I mentioned in a separate posting. Inevitably, the legs of my planned flight zigzag around a track of 180 deg M, some slightly on the east side, and some slightly on the west. Consider this part of the trip, all on...

I was flying in Northern California the other day, VFR without a cloud in the sky, and asked Oakland Center for a practice ILS approach to Chico, a nearby towered airport. I said I would terminate the approach with a missed approach and then depart the area without flight following. The...

Hello, I want to practice maneuvers, descending turns and basic manual maneuvering in IMC conditions. Is it possible to get ATC to assign you a 'practice area' in real IMC environment? Say a block of airspace like they do for aerobatics? Of course I would first do this with a CFII. Previous all...

"Jerry can't fly and chew gum at the same time." ....That's the feeling I got after my last lesson. Yesterday I went out to the airport. CFII was busy, couldn't practice "flying", but I darn well could get better at chewing gum. That is, all the other stuff that you do to fly IFR. Besides...

When I don't fly IFR for a period of time, I don't seem to have any problem with approaches or procedures or the usual stuff, but my scan goes to hell. After looking over at the GPS or down at the chart and finding myself in a 40 degree bank, I tend to turn on the autopilot and leave it on until...

Yesterday, I did something I don't get to do much any more -- just headed off on a trip with no particular purpose in mind other than it was a nice day and I wanted to go flying. I looked at a chart and found an airport I'd never been to before, Claremont NH, and off I went. I did enough...

I need to find out if there is an official maximum amount of precession for a Directional Gyro. My aircraft precesses 10 degrees in 10 minutes during mostly straight and level flight with only a few shallow banks. One avionics tech told me that it depends on the gyro manufacturer as to what is...

If you look at the radar plots at NOAA's site here http://radar.weather.gov/radar_lite.php?product=NCR&loop=no&rid=cxx there is no prediction for precip type, just the value of reflectivity is given. At Intellicast...

I was just reviewing the new Elmira One departure procedure. I think the government has let GPS go to their heads. Unless I'm reading it incorrectly, it specifies the initial heading out to TWO decimal places! The procedure is pretty trivial as it basically says to fly runway heading to 4000...

For those of you who want access to preferred routes, you can get them at http://tinyurl.com/8w2l. This is the search form for the www.fly.faa.gov database. You can enter your departure and destination locations, and get the FAA preferred route for your trip. -- Regards, Stan

Does anybody know where I can get preferred IFR routes when coming back from the USA, say from Teteboro to Oshawa? I have the rotue when going to Teteboro

Will be doing a flight from Toronto (canada) to Teteboro on monday (ifr). Looked at the preferred routing from Toronto to Teteboro. Don't have the preferred routing from Teteboro to Toronto. Would anybody know what it would it be? Any help is appreciayed Thanks

I flew from Columbus OH to Detroit MI and back last night. Detroit has Class B Airspace surrounding Wayne International, and I was going to Oakland Troy (7D2) on the north side. The aircraft and equipment was a C182/G. There are no airways direct from the Columbus area, so I filed direct, planning...

I have flown into Rhode Island several times, and always file direct. However, as I begin to approach the area (about 150 mi out) ATC gives me ammended routing. My problem is that I am unfamiliar with the navaids/airways in that part of the country and it adds a lot of stress to the flight trying...

Any good online sources for the most likely routing you will get from ATC? All of the online flight planning sources I've found seem to only use the most direct via airways when selected vs the Preferred or TEC routing you almost always wind up getting.

Today's flight, figured to video how I preflight my plane. Comments here or on the video most welcomed. Always nice to hear input to make me a safer pilot! Preflighting an airplane Part 1 Walking to the airplane - Preflight inside the...