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Carbon monoxide isn’t usually a problem with well-maintained aircraft, however, it’s enough of a risk that many people use CO monitors to detect concentrations while flying. Most sound an alarm at a preset level and many read the concentration in parts per million (PPM). One of the students brought his monitor and we used it [...]

I was listening to the tower at JFK and pulled up the airport diagram to follow along. I noticed the notation EMAS and 392 × 226 at the approach end of Rwy 22L.

The Google Maps image below shows what it looks like from the air.

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It turns out that there are many airports [...]

On May 16, 2007 Jeppesen started to display runway incursion hot spots in magenta on their IFR airport diagrams. The first two that I noticed are Atwater (KMER) and Santa Ana (KSNA). The NACO charts do not depict the hots spots at this time.1
Some airports are identifying hot spots on their web site. Atlanta’s Dekalb [...]

The use of the GUMPS check has never made any sense to me. It is usually taught to students flying simple trainers and doesn’t really apply. I’ll describe an alternative after I dissect the current practice.
GUMPS usually stands for Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Prop, Safety. Sometimes GUMPRS, adds Radios to the list and C-GUMPS for [...]

IFR for VFR pilots
If you listen to the tower and traffic at a local airport you’ll get a feel for the landmarks that the tower uses for incoming traffic. At SBP for example, traffic that is straight in is asked to report abeam the landfill. Sometimes it is phrased as “report four-mile final”. If you [...]

The pilot of an aircraft in VFR conditions is always responsible for seeing and avoiding other aircraft. This list is a quick shortcut to help you identify aircraft in the pattern. You can find pictures and info on all of these planes at Airliners.net.
When identifying your aircraft while approaching the pattern it helps others to [...]