National Airspace System Online Course
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Feeling a little unsure about airspace? We've all been there.

Whether you're preparing for a checkride, or trying to knock the rust off before you fly to new airports, airspace is probably the most confusing and challenging part of flying.

If you're trying to get up to speed on airspace, this course is for you. You'll learn everything you need to know, including Class A-G airspace, Special Use Airspace, and Other Airspace in a simple-to-use online course.

Buy the course, and you'll feel confident flying through any airspace. And, we think you'll love it so much, we even have a 30 day no-questions-asked money back guarantee.

Best of all, you get lifetime access to the course. And, you can use it on your computer, tablet and phone.

The pilot of a disabled aircraft radioed the air traffic control facility that he was “putting it down in the trees.” Six words no pilot ever wants to say, and six words no controller ever wants to hear.

Happy birthday, America! Now celebrate with some warbird trivia...

While no two thunderstorms are the same, the graphic below explains the basics of what thunderstorm movement looks like. There are times you'll find stationary storms, but with winds aloft, your decision making must adjust accordingly. If you have to fly around thunderstorms, you want to find clear air to visually separate yourself from the storm. Unless you have onboard radar, embedded thunderstorms are difficult, if not impossible to navigate around. And even with onboard radar, navigating through embedded storms can be challenging.

In this example, let's make staying in clear air the first priority.

Generally speaking, you'll find the best chance for clear, smooth air on the upwind side of a thunderstorm. On top of that, you're typically in more sunny conditions on the upwind side. From a passenger's perspective, sunny weather is almost always more enjoyable than cloudy weather, even if the same amount of turbulence is present in both conditions. //

One rule-of-thumb is to avoid the downwind anvil side of a thunderstorm by at least 1 mile for every 1 knot of wind at that flight level.

There's nothing wrong with going around when you're unstable on an approach. Forcing a landing can lead to incidents and accidents. What would you do in this situation?

At the moment, the Royal Schiphol Group has outlined two testing phases with aircraft.

The first will be carried out with an empty Corendon Dutch Airlines 737 aircraft. The plane will be towed by the hybrid vehicle to multiple runways to measure efficiency and sustainability. If the Royal Schiphol Group is happy with the findings, the taxibot will progress to the next stage of testing.

At this next stage, Schiphol will carry out the same trial only this time with an operational aircraft. It has so far named three carriers that might take part in that next stage of testing. These are KLM, easyJet, and Transavia.

Staff will continue to research this new method of taxiing after the vehicle has been returned to its lessors, Smart Airport Systems. By fall 2020, the airport will have a clear understanding as to whether this new method of taxiing is feasible. //

According to Schiphol, it takes 14 minutes for an aircraft to taxi to the runway. That’s 14 minutes of fuel consumed and harmful emissions produced, plus the time it takes to warm up the engine. On the way back, it will take around nine minutes for an arriving aircraft to reach the gate. All in all, that’s a saving of over 23 minutes of fuel burn time saved per aircraft on every single flight.

Even on the New York route a significant share of the regular traffic was accounted for by a small number of repeat customers travelling on a high frequency basis. When a number of these customers lost their lives in the 9/11 terror attack of 2001, British Airways saw a significant dent in its clientele on the service. //

Concorde, too, enjoyed optimistic production forecasts and received a number of orders from leading global airlines of the time, but when the oil price shocks of the early seventies hit, it all evaporated. Only the then-state airlines of the U.K. and France, the countries producing the aircraft, remained to take a handful of aircraft, effectively being gifted them by their respective governments.

In more recent times and in a different market context, Airbus had strong demand forecasts for the giant A380 and many arguments to support their confidence in these. Once more, circumstances conspired to prove these forecasts to be well short of reality, with production of the aircraft now ended.

Demand projections for a new supersonic airliner 10 years or more into the future can only be treated with extreme caution. I see too many uncertainties and factors mitigating against high demand levels. //

Concorde was sold as a time machine, as would any new supersonic airliner. Customers are paying for speed and if that cannot be delivered on a reliable and consistent basis then the whole raison d’etre is lost.

The reality is that there are always teething problems and even when bedded in, technical glitches and operational problems occur on a daily basis. BA had spare capacity built into its Concorde fleet and all aircraft operated primarily out of its Heathrow base. United’s plans, by contrast, call for a small, dispersed fleet operating in multiple markets including trans-Pacific and transatlantic routes. This looks like a recipe for complexity in terms of crew and engineering resources and spares inventories, risking fragile reliability of operation while also adding to operational costs.

KLM ultimately elected for 10 of its 747-200s to have a stretched upper deck. //

Last year, KLM retired its last Boeing 747 aircraft. This brought the curtain down on nearly half a century of jumbo jet operations at the Dutch flag carrier. The first variant of the ‘Queen of the skies’ that KLM operated was the 747-200, which initially had the same short upper deck as the original 747-100. However, several examples of KLM’s 747-200s ended up having a stretched upper deck, which would eventually become a standard feature on later 747s. //

The result of this change, Boeing proclaimed, was “a 10% increase in capacity with only a 2% change in operating empty weight.” The stretch was a complex, multi-step procedure that required work on more than just the upper deck crown itself. Indeed, engineers also had to remove the roof behind the original upper deck, and the cab crown. //

Indeed, when the next variant of the family was launched, the 747-300, the stretched upper deck came as standard. Aerotime reports that Boeing claimed, thanks to the aforementioned minimal increase in weight despite the 10% capacity increase, this feature decreased fuel consumption by 5% per seat-mile. All in all, it made sense from a financial point of view.

While the 747-300 sold fairly poorly (81 examples), the stretched upper deck was retained by the 747-400 that followed. This quickly outsold its predecessor (694 examples), thanks to factors like its increased range and two-person glass cockpit. The stretched upper deck’s story came to an end when the 747-8 came into being, with an even longer second floor.

Speaking at a recent CAPA Live event, Executive Chairman of Air Lease Corporation (ALC) Steve Udvar-Hazy commented on the impact that COVID has had on the industry. //

“The airline industry as a whole on a global level has lost everything they’ve earned since World War II. I mean, everything, all the profits that were hard-earned are gone.

“If it was not for government support, either in the forms of guarantees, equity, loans, all kinds of medicine government agencies have put forth, the airline industry would have been crippled.” //

IATA estimates that the industry’s debt burden as a whole has ballooned by $220 billion to a total of $651 billion. //

“The balance sheets of airlines today compared to where they were, say, 18 months ago is vastly different. And many, many airlines have mortgaged everything, their planes, their slots, their airport terminals, their ground facilities, their frequent flyer programs. They’ve borrowed against every possible asset or even virtual assets that they don’t even have.” //

“At the end of last year, we crossed that threshold where more than 50% of the aircraft are leased, either on an operating lease or a finance lease or on a sale-leaseback. That is a huge change from where we were even five years ago,” said the ALC boss.

Africa isn’t a continent that gets a huge amount of attention for aviation, which is a shame. This year, there are over 31 million round-trip seats (non-stop and one-stop) planned from the rest of the world to sub-Saharan Africa, for instance all areas below North Africa. While Ethiopian Airlines is predictably the largest airline, we look at the top-10 non-African carriers and the largest markets.

The horrific crash of a Bonanza A36 in March due to a runway turnback attempt prompted AOPA Air Safety Institute to shoot this excellent video analyzing turnback results with four different types of aircraft. Bottom line: The turnback is viable for smaller, lightly wing-loaded aircraft flown by a proficient and prepared pilot. It’s unlikely—probably impossible—to pull off with a heavier, faster airplane like the Bonanza tested in the video. //

John Mc
June 14, 2021 at 12:00 pm
I don’t recommend it, but if you really want to see how well you can perform a turn-back maneuver, you need to do it with a totally dead engine, not just one at idle. Having experienced an engine failure in a plane with a fixed pitch prop, I can tell you that it is quite different. The turning prop fights the air and makes the airplane vibrate like an impending stall. The turbulence also diminishes the elevator and rudder effectiveness – one more reason to lower the nose and keep your airspeed up. And if you think you can slow the plane down enough to stop the prop from windmilling, you aren’t going to have the time to do that 800 feet above the ground. I was fortunate to have enough altitude that I made it back to the runway, but if it had lunched on takeoff, I most likely would have visited the trees off the end of the runway. //

Kit Duncan
June 14, 2021 at 4:02 pm
A couple of points here, everyone seems to be assuming catastrophic engine failure. In the Navy we had a mantra we had to recite to the instructor when he pulled the power on a touch and go: Gas, Battery, Mags, “simulate” Prime. IOW, check the fuel selector is not off, or on an empty tank. Make sure the battery switch hasn’t been tripped. Switch the mags to left then right, hoping one is still producing spark. Lastly, push the primer button to see if the engine has maybe suffered a fuel pump failure.

You could recite and point to those things in three seconds, but accomplishing them in a real emergency would have taken longer. At low altitude we pretty much had only 45 degrees either side of the nose to find a suitable (or not) place to put down.

I suffered a valve failure on takeoff in my Decathlon years ago. Thankfully the engine continued to run (rough) or I would have had no choice but to land in trees off the end of the runway. Leaving the power set, I notified Tower of my problem and immediately turned downwind to the longer parallel runway while climbing to about 500 ft. Close aboard the runway and abeam the touchdown zone, I started an”impossible turn” while simultaneously reducing power since I was over the runway, and easily landed in the first third. //

Jim Holdeman
June 14, 2021 at 4:20 pm
I recently completed a BFR by a very knowledgeable, proficient, and thorough CFII. My Bonanza had been down for its annual that did not allow me to perform my BFR in it. My BFR had expired while the airplane was down. With a single yoke and expired BFR, I could not use my airplane once the annual was completed. I was not going to go through the trouble and expense of renting a dual yoke for my BFR. So, I rented a C172 which coincidentally had an 0-360 with CS prop. Somewhat unusual from the run of the mill rental 172’s. To coordinate with his current student load and aircraft availability, I had to drive a couple of hours to a new to me airport and corresponding topography. I had not flown a 172 for about 11 years, the last flight in my former 1956 C172. I was looking forward to getting acquainted again with a 172 even if it was not an old straight tail.

During the BFR, I was directed to land at a beautiful strip surrounded by some lakes, a river, and small mountains. That landing turned out to be a touch and go where upon climb out on this humid 96 degree afternoon he pulled the power. While somewhat anticipating this earlier in the flight, I have to admit with getting re-acclimated to a 172, high wing vs low wing, 180hp/CS prop vs Bonanza variable pitch prop, late into the flight, and panel differences, and the beauty of that strip on final approach and climbout, I was surprised and startle effect did momentarily happen. But within a couple of seconds I lowered the nose, turned about 30-35 degrees left and aimed for what appeared to be about 1,000 to 1200 ft field among all the trees that were on top of this small mountain range. While about 600-700 ft agl above the airport elevation, I was less than 3-400ft agl above my present sedate cruise climb configuration and location over those still ascending small mountains which kept me at that same 3-400 ft level agl. He seemed satisfied with my decision, agreed that I would safely make the field as we got closer to it.

While I added power back and began my climb out, he asked me why I did not do a turn back to the runway. Without hesitation, I said with the high density altitude, windmilling constant speed prop in high RPM, low pitch, full of fuel, and not really proficient in this particular airplane with its STC’d mods, 11 year hiatus from my personal 172, new to me panel with fuel, switch locations, I had already decided outside of being 800ft agl above the highest surrounding terrain, I would not even attempt a turn back.

I had reviewed Paul’s video the night before my BFR. I believe there is no one size fits all strategy. It all depends on so many variables. I was familiar with a 172 but not this particular one. It was a very hot, humid day, high density altitude with unfamiliar, moderately rising terrain type of topography at the moment of the power loss. Had this happened at the home base of the airplane just a mere 10 miles away, with level ground and being 700-800ft agl, I would have done a turn back. Even if I did not make the runway, I would make it to level grass with no obstructions within the airport boundaries.

One must form a decision strategy based on current circumstances, airplane being flown, configuration, and conditions. My take away from the video and having to dead stick a Bonanza into a tight field some years ago has mentally prepared me to be far more vigilant about my current environment, particularly at take-off but throughout the flight. This includes a predertimed hard deck for all potential maneuvers should the fan stop no matter what time of the flight this might happen. I think having this sort of strategy in play helps take away the potential for indecision and wishful thinking hoping for a good outcome vs being pro-active at every moment until the airplane comes to a full stop.

Plus, I may be flying with my A game one day, and maybe not quite up to A game performance another day or time. We can be A game flyers in the morning and less than that later in the day for a variety of reasons. I was not an A game flier in this particular airplane, at this particular time, in this particular terrain. I was competent under those conditions and would have safely made to to my intended landing site. Competent and A game are not always the same. That difference has to be known before the fan potentially stops. As Paul says…depends.

Pan American World Airways is one of the most iconic airlines in history. It was the vision and determination of entrepreneur Juan Trippe that took the operator to unprecedented heights during some of the aviation industry’s most golden years.

In March 2020, Delta pilot Chris Dennis left a note in the aircraft he was parking in a storage lot in Victorville, California, thinking it would be found after a two-week quarantine. But after being discovered 435 days later, the note is now being called a "time capsule." //

Dennis said he parked the aircraft with dozens of other planes and said each represented hundreds of jobs. He described the scene as "Chilling, apocalyptic, surreal" in a Facebook post in March 2020. Airlines were parking passenger planes en masse as travel fell to historic lows.

Dennis wanted to commemorate his emotions in a note for the next pilot to find.

"Hey pilots - It's March 23rd and we just arrived from MSP," Dennis wrote in the note. "Very chilling to see so much of our fleet here in the desert. If you are here to pick it up then the light must be at the end of the tunnel. Amazing how fast it changed. Have a safe flight bringing it out of storage!"

The Force was with me (well, except for the delay) when I recently got to fly on the United Airlines Boeing 737-800 decorated for Star Wars fans.

I had no idea the final leg of my journey to Puerto Rico would be on the Star Wars plane, but I was thrilled to see it at the gate. I thought it would be fun for you all to see the outside and inside of this cool plane, too.

For more news and AvGeek

Visual approaches can be tough in the IFR world, especially when you're flying jets. Here's how one experienced, dual-ATP rated crew landed on a runway 6,000 feet shorter than the ATC-cleared runway.

Despite the humor and hilarious candor, it looks like a pretty nice plane.

Ty Ferkin from Caldwell, Idaho, is selling his Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser. And it’s not just any Super Cruiser. To hear the owner’s view on it, he’s amazed it ever managed to get from Point A to Point B, at least with him as the pilot. But this plane will change your life, and he insists, “You’ll be the living embodiment of those bush pilots we see in the movies. Fearless, not even noticing that their bird hasn’t been washed in 8 years, or that not a single control surface is the same color.” And he further claims that this PA-12 is “Guaranteed to land and take off from any strip in the Idaho backcountry with the word ‘Creek’ in the name.”

A Belarusian passenger plane flying from Minsk to Barcelona turned back on Wednesday, data from website Flightradar24 showed, after Poland said it may not be able to enter French airspace.

European Union leaders have directed officials to draw up new sanctions against Belarus and work out a way to ban Belarusian airlines from the bloc's skies after a Ryanair flight carrying a dissident journalist was forced to land in Minsk.

Cactus

12 Jun, 2020
The main problem with hydrogen is that it does not exist in an unbound, free form on Earth. It occurs combined with oxygen as water, or in hydrocarbons, like crude oil or natural gas. To make pure hydrogen it needs to be liberated from the compound it is in, and this takes energy. Hydrogen is not a source of energy. It is a means to store energy.

It will be easier for everyone to make synthetic hydrocarbons using renewable or nuclear power and use these synthetic hydrocarbons directly in currently exists turbine and piston engines. //

Pete
3.3K Points

12 Jun, 2020
Hydrogen is a pain to transport and store, increasing costs significantly.

As of right now, producing H2 for fuel cell ground vehicles involves cracking it from hydrocarbons, which is still a dirty process and only shifts the pollution elsewhere. Electrolysis is the end goal, but is extremely energy intensive. We'd need to build out a fair amount of renewable and nuclear power to fulfill that increased demand.

Yet the creativity that the city is famous for does not extend to the government. They favor the generic and boring, and refuse to see the advantages of having two airports.

Now that BER is online, Tegel could be updated and resized to its original hexagon of 14 gates and 16 check-in counters to serve select airlines, the government or private jets willing to pay for the close access to the city. But once they rip up the runway there will be no going back.

History gave unified Berlin three functioning airports. One by one they have disappeared. When Tegel is gone, the jet age will be over for Berlin. Its BER replacement is far away and no new airport will ever be built in the city.

For 46 years Tegel was an eccentric and exceptional addition to Berlin. May it remain in our memories forever as the airport built around the idea that form should follow function — the one international airport where travelers came first.

A pilot aboard a Ryanair jetliner forced to land in Belarus over the weekend repeatedly questioned air-traffic controllers about their request to reroute the plane to Minsk amid a purported bomb threat, according to a partial transcript released Tuesday by Belarus’ government aviation agency.

The transcript hasn’t been independently verified. . Several pilots and security experts asked to review the accounting by The Wall Street Journal said it appeared to be genuine, based on the terminology and back-and-forth typical of such conversations. Some said the Ryanair pilots, who repeatedly asked for clarification about the airport at which they were being asked to land, seemed surprised by the request to divert to Minsk.

“They definitely hesitated,“ said Ben Berman, a retired U.S. airline captain and former accident investigator who is now an airline safety consultant. ”They didn’t just accept the statement of the controller.”//

European officials have called a bomb threat improbable, and the European Union has restricted its carriers from flying over Belarus. European and U.S. officials have condemned the detour as a brazen act of interference in commercial aviation and have called for an investigation. Air industry and aviation safety officials say if the bomb threat was faked, it represents a dangerous precedent that could erode trust between commercial airlines and the countries they fly over.

Belarus has said it acted according to international protocols after receiving correspondence from Hamas, the militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, that a bomb aboard was set to detonate over Vilnius. Hamas hasn’t responded to requests for comment.