Liberals HATE America wrote: Alas, Orville and Wilbur Wright are today pigeon-holed as "dead white males" whom we are supposed to ignore, if not deplore. The author is sadly misinformed. I couldn't care less about "white" or "male". However, "dead" is a Bad Thing. I certainly expend a...

Ha! I bet you thought that this was going to be some porn spam. Well...perhaps not after the "Cold" bit grin. I'd a very nice "getting feet wet" flight today. I was in the clouds for roughly half the brief (two hour) (CDW-SWF-CDW) flight, I was in wet clouds watching the thermostat drop, and...

I see that CQX has a clearance delivery frequency, so IFR ops there apparently don't require a phone call to FSS (excluding the filing, of course). But when IFR out of KCDW, I can expect release delays because CDW departures are treated with lower priority than TEB, EWR, and probably...

Planning a flight from CDW to CQX, I found in Jepp one route: BREZY V39 CMK V3 HFD V167 PVD V151 GAILS. DUAT offers another: FALLZ V3 JEWIT V167 PEAKE Am I likely to get the DUAL routing if I request it? I'm surprised that it would yield something different from Jepp. Admittedly, it's not much...

Departing Lancaster the other day, I received an odd clearance. I was cleared from the airport to the Lancaster VOR, then East Texas VOR... It was that first leg (Lancaster Airport to Lancaster VOR) that confused me. The VOR is on the field. I have little choice but to go past it as a trundle...

I'm no freight dog or corporate pilot with dozens of approaches to minimums each day. For me, as with many GA pilots I expect, maintaining *real* currency involves explicit practice. That's fine; I enjoy it. But I'd like to try some new places. The issue is that I'd like to try some new places...

On the Bendex/King gear on which I learned, it was easy to skip to another way point on the flight plan. And this was very convenient, as it comes up fairly often when IFR, at least for me. For example, I'll very often be told "direct SBJ" when leaving CDW, only get "direct ..." to the...

Most of the software out there will compute a flight based on the user's route, time of departure and altitude. This is a fairly straight forward task which could be done without a computer, as has been the case for decades. What I am looking for is the reverse. Given a destination, aircraft type...

On VOR/DME-B @ 69V, there is a comment that says PT is not authorized when arriving northbound on V208. Then on the bottom of the chart it says "Procedure Turn NA". Why bother printing the first statement, when PT is clearly not authorized for any transitions? Is this a left-over from a old chart...

These are shown on the LL enroute chart by little brown circles connected by a line. The legend says "substitute route, see NOTAMs". There are several originating from the DQO VOR near the Washington DC area, but there could be others as well. I have never noticed these before. Any ideas what they...

How do you get clearances from a non-towered field in Canada? Do they use RCO/GCO or void-times like in the US? Are pop-up clearances used?

I can't seem to find the IAF for the LOC BC RWY 03R at LUK. Any ideas why?

The enroute chart for the border states include a significant portion of Canada. Is this sufficient for IFR into Canada? The VFR sectional contains a warning that the airspace classification may be different in Canada and that the pilot should consult the Canadian Flight Supplement. But the...

I am planning a trip to PTK (Oakland County) which is about 25 miles north of Detroit. I will be coming from the south. The route is V493 to CRL and then direct to the PSI VOR. Planned altitude is 6000'. This will take me almost directly overhead the DTW airport. What are the chances of...

Is there an explanation for why small radii objects collect ice faster? The NASA icing video simply states this fact without giving an explanation. I have found the same with most other sources as well.

If you file to a VOR direct, can ATC clear you along an airway instead, and expect you to look up the airways? In other words, how important is to carry an enroute chart if you don't plan on using airways?

I've been watching the icing airmets for some time now, and it seems to be getting more and more conservative to the point of being unrealistic. For example, right now the freezing level is at 5000 ft, MEA is at 2500 ft, yet we have an airmet Z that goes all way from SFC to 18k. How could you...

I am curious how many of you routinely consult the AF/D prior to every IFR flight. The reason is, a well known FAA inspector at a recent safety seminar commented that those little green books were not of much use anymore, and that most pilots simply don't use them. I was surprised, because I've...

Over the years I have been using various digital timers, but so far I have not been satisfied with any of them. The LCD displays make them difficult to read when viewing at different angles. The right seat pilot (or CFII) cannot see the digits. Lack of illumination in most units is another big...

The last few days have been excellent IFR conditions here (Ohio and Indiana). Freezing levels above 8000ft, weather near minimums has been a great opportunity for spancan flyers like us to get some actual experience without worrying about ice.