Touring Machine Company

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Logging of PIC time is important for currency, insurance, and for experience necessary for obtaining ratings. The rules are not necessarily the same in all instances. FAR 61.51 covers what must be included in logbooks and gives guidance on how to log experience. To interpret the regulation correctly it is important to first understand the [...]

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 [...]

A student pilot normally learns to fly in an airplane that has one propeller and fixed-wheel landing gear. The student is usually pursuing a “Single-Engine Land Rating”. Once the required tests are passed the airman is issued a pilot certificate that has a single engine land rating. The certificate never expires and allows the pilot [...]