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Historical reason for 12 and 24 volt Batteries Because the aircraft industry standardized on the nominal CHARGING voltage of 28 volts rather than the DISCHARGED voltage of 24 volts. 24-28?? Same animal with a different nametag. Now, why 24/28 volts? Because the aircraft needed to be lighter for military performance reasons. Two 12 volt batteries […]

I’m taking a checkride in a stock Cessna 172P that came from the factory with Bendix/King avionics. It has a GPS and autopilot that I am not familiar with. This post has some videos and pilot information manuals that you might find helpful if you fly one of these. The GPS is a KLN 94 […]

I ran across this article in the November 1959 Flying Magazine about the new Cessna 210. Not a whole lot changed in the flying characteristics of the original and my 1973 T210L.

FAA-H-8083-25B Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge Vg Diagram The flight operating strength of an aircraft is presented on a graph whose vertical scale is based on load factor. The diagram is called a Vg diagram—velocity versus G loads or load factor. Each aircraft has its own Vg diagram that is valid at a certain weight […]

I’m really liking the Wonderful World of Flying videos. This one starts with Emergency Glide Techniques with Barry Schiff. In the video he talks about how you can’t extend the glide by varying from the best glide speed but that best glide speed does vary with weight. I used his formula to adjust my weight […]

The procedures described in these videos are slightly more complicated than the ones we use on single-engine planes—after all they do have four engines—but they are remarkably relevant to today’s private pilots. How to Fly the Boeing B-29 Superfortress -1944 Boeing B-29 Superfortress Flight Engineer -1944 How to Fly the North American B-25 ‘Mitchell’ Medium […]

Pipistrel has introduced a 4-seat electric aircraft. The Taurus G4 holds four people in twp pods with a center mounted engine. Aero News has a good article about the details. The design of this UAV isn’t particularly unusual, but its construction method is. It was printed on a 3d printer. Engineers at the University of […]

One of the first things you learn as a pilot is that certain documents are required to be aboard the airplane. The nemonic is ARROW—Airworthiness Certificate, Registration, Radio License (now required only if flying out of the country), Operating Limitations, Weight and Balance. An FAA approved Flight Manual (AFM) is required to be in the […]

I’ve used checklists that you can purchase for planes but haven’t liked them too much. Since I only fly planes I own, I’ve gotten into the habit of making detailed checklists that contain a lot of information from the Operating Handbook that I need to know but may forget. I used to print checklists on […]

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I just refurbished a 1968 Piper Cherokee 140 and liked the result so much that I decided to keep it and rent it out. This post is a collection of articles on buying and flying the Cherokee. Image from original Piper marketing literature. My Cherokee Overview Fred Weick, the designer of the Ercoupe, designed the […]

When reading about aircraft in publications like Aviation Consumer, I tend to focus on the accident causes and it seems that across all aircraft, around 12% of accidents are caused by fuel exhastion and another 2-4% by fuel contamination. This usually puts fuel mismanagement in third or fourth place among accident causes. Inexplicably, fuel exhaustion […]

Certification of Aircraft is covered by PART 23–AIRWORTHINESS STANDARDS: NORMAL, UTILITY, ACROBATIC, AND COMMUTER CATEGORY AIRPLANES Among other things it sets out the four types of aircraft that are normally flown in Part 91 operations. FAR §23.3 Airplane categories. (a) The normal category is limited to airplanes that have a seating configuration, excluding pilot seats, of […]

Roll over the planes to see parts labelled. Beginning students should name and roll until the names become second nature. Use the Next and Previous button to see more planes. The Show/Hide button lots you see all of the items on the page. If two labels are close together, roll over each of them and […]

We recently had a visit from a medium-size military cargo plane and I was curious as to what it was. One of the airport kids knew what it was and I used the information to find out more. But it started me thinking about sites that might be useful for identifying aircraft and I found […]

Click on the picture for more pictures of the same plane.  Swift  T38 Trainer  Stearman PT-17 Trainer  Quickie (More Photos)  Longer Long-EZ  Coast-to-coast Air Mail Bi-Planes  Avanti

Inspections of the entire aircraft and parts of it are required at 1 or 2 year intervals. In addition, ADs, service buletins, or manufacturers specifications may require inspection or replacement of parts at certain intervals. The following list is not necessarily complete. Annual Inspection FAR §91.409 requires an inspection every 12 months, specifically … no […]

One thing that I thought odd when I first started flying was the propensity for pilots to tell stories about how they really messed up and lived to tell about it. As I listened to more and more of these hanger flying stories I came to the realization that almost all of them involved the […]

As described below, annual and 100 hour inspections require the use of a checklist. Download our checklist as a PDF or in .doc format. § 43.15 Additional performance rules for inspections. (c) Annual and 100-hour inspections. (1) Each person performing an annual or 100-hour inspection shall use a checklist while performing the inspection. The checklist […]

It’s annual time again and this is the first annual on our Cessna 210. The plane had been stored for 12 years and flown infrequently for the last 3 years by a person with, let’s say, a creative approach to maintenance. It sat because the previous owners had burned out two engines and were bickering […]

There are all kinds of cool airplanes out there and sometimes when I see one I want to ask someone what it is. That’s not always possible but you can always find out if you know the N number. Go to the FAA registry and type in the N number. Suppose you put in N7290J […]

As an airplane moves through the air it also can rotate about its center of gravity in three axes. Rotation along the lateral axis (found by drawing a from one wing-tip to the other through the body of the plane) is called pitch and is controlled by the elevator. Rotation along the longitudinal axis (found […]