The FAA has recently released an updated Advisory Circular on Non-Towered Airport Flight Operations (AC 90-66C), issued on June 6, 2023.
This is a great document to brush up on your understanding of traffic pattern operations, study for any upcoming checkride, or to use with your students if you are CFI.
You can find it at:
Sometimes, you just need to get out and fly a bit for fun.
With a non-committed morning ahead of me and an opportunity to sleep in, it was a good night to take Charlie for a spin and reset some tailwheel and single-engine night currency.
A little trip to to the lakeshore with a good friend riding along let us see the last of the sun leftovers drip away as we scooted along the Lake Michigan Shoreline and then into Holland for a couple full stop taxi-back landings before then heading back to Allegan.
You can’t get much better than a smooth ride in a 76 year old aircraft along the shoreline as the last of the light fades and brings on the night in the summer. Thanks for helping reset the night currency Charlie!
Pop quiz time.
If you are an FAA Air Safety Inspector or NTSB Accident Investigator, pick three of the following six days you would choose to be on call for accidents.
A. Christmas Day
B. Easter Sunday
C. New Year’s Day
D. Memorial Weekend
E. Fourth of July Weekend
F. Labor Day Weekend
Most people who have to respond to accidents in aviation will tell you they would rather be on call A, B, and C than D, E, and F. They are less likely to be needed.
Every year, Memorial Day weekend, the Fourth of July weekend, and Labor Day weekends generate more general aviation accidents than most other periods of the year. Pilots have time off, pilots have made plans to fly, and they go even if the weather is a little bit iffy or their skills are a bit rusty.
If you are thinking about flying somewhere this weekend or any of the other big summer holidays, and you are questioning even a little bit whether you should be going, stop the accident chain before it starts.
Don’t give our FAA and NTSB folks a reason to have to go in to work! Everyone in the aviation community would rather see you with us for a future fly-in, a trip to visit family, or just a trip around the pattern.
Charlie returned home today after what I am kind of thinking of as a “mid-life checkup. This year’s annual we dug in a little deeper than most require, did a couple upgrades, and generally tried to make sure her mid-life checkup didn’t have any major hiccups. The goal is to keep being good caretakers of this now 76-year-old chariot of the sky!
I was pretty happy to get reacquainted with her and spend a little time in the air between some low ceilings and afternoon rain as she delivered me back home. I tucked her into a freshly swept hangar that had been empty for a little over a month in her absence.
But that month wasn’t because the mechanics working on her were sitting idle. This annual inspection included a bit of work. Continue reading
