Scattering Ashes Is More Than Flying For A Pilot

For many familiies, and not just those of pilots flown west, the final act of love is having their family member's ashes scattered in a special place. Scattering cremated remains by airplane has been a labor of love for me and my family for the past 17 years. It started as a way to help…
19/09/2019/by Miami Flight Academy

Going Direct: After Draco’s Crash: Lessons In Being a Pilot

Video footage from Mike Patey shows Draco after the crash. Unless you live in a vacuum, by now you know that Draco crashed yesterday while taking off from Reno Stead Airport. The occupants, Mike Patey, his wife and fellow pilot Chandra Brooks Patey, weren’t injured in the mishap, thank goodness. But Draco was destroyed. And…
18/09/2019/by Miami Flight Academy

Draco Destroyed. Video Of the Crash

Mike Patey and his wife Chandra are uninjured after Draco, the incredible turboprop STOL plane Mike Patey made, ground looped and was destroyed. Patey was taking off in very gusty conditions at Reno Stead, with winds registering to greater than 40 knots with a big crosswind component. The plane ground-looped as it was taking off, going…
17/09/2019/by Miami Flight Academy

October 2019 Crossword Key

Across 1. Concept plane from Airbus that “flaps” in response to gusts and turbulence, 2 words 8. GPS picture, for example 9. It’s sometimes required for an approach 10. Route, for short 12. Large tree 14. What the pilot did during an autoland 16. Suffix for depend and cool 17 . Instrument ____ 19. U.S.__,…
16/09/2019/by Miami Flight Academy

Getting Pilots To Speak Up

Pilots need to speak up more to help others from doing something risky. Not long after I moved to the rural area where I now reside, an experienced pilot who lived just down the road from me departed from our local airport in his single-engine airplane with his 9-year-old daughter on board. The marine layer…
15/09/2019/by Miami Flight Academy

This Amazing Mad Max Inspired Plane Makeover Has A Story Behind It

If you haven’t seen this photo yet, then here you go! It’s officially our favorite non-flying car ever! But it turns out the plane that makes up the body of the car has a history—thank you, Internet—which makes the whole thing even more fun. And no one was harmed, thank goodness, in the making of…
14/09/2019/by Miami Flight Academy

Going Direct: Huge Questions For Aviation In NTSB Final Report On Embry-Riddle Crash

A photo from the scene of the crash shows the separated left wing in the foreground, and main wreckage in the background. Photo courtesy of the NTSB When the wing of an airplane separates in flight, it gets people’s attention. So last year, when the left wing of a Piper Arrow came off of an…
13/09/2019/by Miami Flight Academy

This Incredible Plane: Lockheed C-130 Hercules

Lockheed C-130 Hercules Overview: Back in the early 1950s, when the Lockheed C-130 Hercules (now the Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules) was created, it was unlikely that anyone knew what a huge impact on aviation history this transport/jack-of-all-trades would have on aviation. Surely no one would have suspected that the new plane, a replacement for…
12/09/2019/by Miami Flight Academy

What Caused TWA Flight 800 To Explode Mid-Air?

A photograph of the right side of the large three-dimensional reconstruction of TWA Flight 800 with the support scaffolding visible. BACKGROUND On July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747-131 with 230 passengers and crew on board, exploded mid-air shortly after takeoff. The flight was scheduled to depart JFK International Airport for Paris’ Charles…
11/09/2019/by Miami Flight Academy

Keep Your Flying Skills Sharp

Pilots should always practice to keep their flying skills sharp. One of the great truths of flying is the admonition, “He who stops getting better stops being good.” We must constantly strive for the perfection we may never achieve, just to keep our skills sharp. Becoming satisfied with being almost good enough means that we’re…
10/09/2019/by Miami Flight Academy

Tales A Mooney Might Tell

The original owners of a Mooney M20C that is now owned by Jeremy King. In a 35-mm transparency I only recently discovered in my library, there’s an image of a red-and-white Mooney M20C in front of a hangar with an older couple standing in front of it. The best guess I’ve got is that it’s…
09/09/2019/by Miami Flight Academy

Video: Low-Time Glider Pilot Has Tow Rope Break Down Low

Okay, so you’re a 30-hour glider pilot giving your brother, who has autism, a ride in a Schweizer SGS 2-33 when at low altitude, the towline breaks. This is the situation that 20-year-old newly minted glider pilot Aryanna Valdovinos found herself in recently, and how she responded was nothing short of inspiring. The in-cockpit video…
08/09/2019/by Miami Flight Academy
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