July, 2008 Vol. V, No.
7 |
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Welcome
to the
Over the
Airwaves
aviation journal. This complimentary e-publication
is prepared monthly for pilots and aviation enthusiasts around the
world. Its aim
is to promote
flight safety, encourage students and new pilots, and to build
enthusiasm for aviation in general.
Fuel Price Woes Woa is me . . . the sky is falling. Rising fuel prices will drive general aviation into the grave! Stand around any group of chronically complaining pilots and the topic of the day will be escalating fuel prices. They spin stories of the "good ole' days" of aviation when you could fill your tank for just a couple of bucks. Okay, so fuel prices are rising. So is a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread. Has anybody computed the cost of bottled water lately? At $1.00/pint, the price of bottled water translates to $8/gallon - for water! We Americans have benefited from the lowest avgas prices on the globe for the past 30 years. Rather then steadily increasing in bite size pieces, they have suddenly jumped up (but still well-below global parity), leaving all of us in aviation apoplexy. Flying has always been expensive Flying has always been expensive, but so has eating out at restaurants. When I was a kid growing up in a middle class community, my parents seldom took us out to eat. It was just too expensive. As for learning to fly back in the 1950s, it was still looked upon as a bit of financial extravagance. Things have changed today. Americans are now eating in restaurants more frequently than at home. It's hard to find a table at a good restaurant on a Friday evening in any community in America! Many families have two, maybe three cars in the garage and a U.S. choice cut of tenderloin steak in every pot. We are still the land of plenty. Here's a way to beat the avgas fuel prices We can beat
the rising cost of avgas simply by adopting the
lifestyle of our parents. Let's eat meals at home
instead of eating out. Let's carve and cook our own
chickens instead of dining on sirloin tips and French
Let's get by on one family car, sell the boat, dump the Florida condo, and forget about Caribbean vacations every year. Let's live on Social Security alone instead of the fat retirement packages many of us have garnered. We want to fly like we did in the 50s and 60s? Let's live like we did in the 50s and 60's! Then we will be able to top off our airplanes with financial ease! Time to grin and bear it! It's time that we recognize that there is NOTHING we can do about rising fuel costs. Today's events are evolving on the international rather than the national stage. The U.S. government cannot come in like the trust-busting days of the Teddy Roosevelt Administration and break up the oil company monopoly. Let's accept higher fuel costs and stop complaining. Instead, "fill 'er up" and go fly . . . while we still have a chance. Remember, each passing year brings us a bit closer to when we can't pass that medical. If that doesn't concern us, the day could quite reasonably come when we cannot obtain 100LL at all! Lastly, beware of the false economy of cutting back on our flying. Each week that passes without going aloft leaves us as less proficient pilots. What was once smooth landings now becomes balloons and bounces. Just one prop strike or bent wing could wind up costing us far more than what we saved by not flying more frequently. When enough of us bend metal, our resultant rising insurance premiums will make fuel prices look like pocket change! Today is Sunday for me. I think I'll go flying this afternoon. As for supper tonight . . . it will be hotdogs on the grill, an ear of corn, and a glass of (non-bottled) water. How about you?
Judgment Lapse or Tempting Fate????
Imagine this scenario. An 18,000 hour CFI asks his student to check the fuel load on a Cessna 172 prior to a routine training flight. The student climbs up on the wing, "sticks" the tanks and reports back that there are 6 gallons in each, for a total of 12 gallons. Together, they climb aboard, without refueling, take off and fly over to a nearby airport for some "touch and goes," then they begin winging their way back to their home airport. A little over one hour lapses on their Hobbs meter before (duh) the engine quits. The CFI takes the controls and manages to put the powerless airplane in the trees. Both CFI and student survive but are seriously injured. The NTSB accident investigators find about one quart of fuel remaining in one tank and a gallon in the other. The fuel tanks were not compromised and there was no indication of a fuel leak in the fuel system. No fuel was observed in the fuel line from the fuel tank to the fuel strainer. This sad scenario is true. Was it a lapse of judgment or was the CFI tempting fate??
From the facts as contained in the NTSB preliminary report, the CFI asked and was told how much fuel was aboard before launching. As an experienced CFI, we might also conclude that he knew the fuel burn rate of a Cessna 172. A quick bit of 5th grade math would have put the un-refueled duration of this airplane at about one hour. Proving the correctness of this calculation, the engine quit 1.1 hours into their training flight! As for the question of judgment lapse versus tempting fate, I'll put my money on the former. Why? Because I, like many experienced pilots, tend to to become more complacent with each passing accident-free year. This case may be no different. Ignoring or discounting obvious risks, we talented and experienced pilots climb aboard and launch believing that everything will be fine. "It's never happened to me before, thus it isn't likely to happen in the future," concludes we aerial veterans of 100 air wars! Thus, we press on into either our fuel reserves, worsening weather, or whatever other risks that lay before us. Fuel Mismanagement . . . In 2006, we pilots managed to wreck 86 airplanes because of fuel mis-management. Eleven of these mishaps involved fatalities. That's one fuel-related accident every 4 days! It looks like many of us are not very good at tempting fate!
So what's the solution? Clearly, the best solution is to plan to always arrive at our destination with at least one hour of fuel remaining (with apologies to FAR 91.151 that require only 30 minutes fuel reserves for day VFR flight). Next, leave fate tempting to professional dare-devils.
Lastly, if remaining fuel quantity is ever in question, stop and
refuel. The added minutes will return many times over
in peace of mind (or avoidance of bent metal).
Click HERE to view a six minute video dramatizing the wonders of flight for this RV pilot. It's all set to music. Enjoy! Thanks to OTA reader, Paul Pedersen of Buffalo, NY, for sharing this with us.
Continued VFR flight into IFR Conditions - Suicide by Airplane! The frequency upon which VFR-only pilots blunder into IFR conditions is such that we ought to give it a name. We'll call it, "Suicide by Airplane!" Take the case of a Cessna 210 pilot, rated for VFR flight only. He took off this past February from New Iberia, Louisiana bound for Houston, Texas, some 197 miles to the west.
The pilot received a standard weather briefing from Flight Service. He was advised that the weather was marginal across his route of flight, and that VFR (Visual Flight Rules) flight was not recommended.
Below are the final
radio exchanges between this pilot and ATC:
The wreckage path was approximately 235-feet long, on about a 330-degree heading. The airplane was fragmented, with pieces of the airplane scattered along the wreckage path.
The NTSB Report . . .
Continued VFR flight into instrument meteorological conditions remains the number one weather related cause of fatal accidents. Curiously, many of its victims did not intentionally fly into the clouds. Instead, they found themselves suddenly and inexplicably caught in subtly declining visibility. Within minutes, even seconds, the horizon and ground contact was lost. Throw away the view limiting devices! Having three hours of simulated IFR training under the hood is a cruel hoax perpetrated by the FAA and many CFIs and flight schools to have their students believe they can handle an inadvertent IMC penetration. Throw away the hood! Instead, every private pilot should experience REAL IFR conditions first hand with an instrument-savvy CFI aboard. Let them witness just how insidious this risk can be! Then have them master the skills necessary to safely extricate themselves from such encounters. BRAVO - AOPA/ASF!!!! We CFIs have to renew our CFI certificates every two years. There are several ways to accomplish this. This time around, I opted for an online flight instructor refresher course (FIRC). Several organizations including Gleim, American Flyers, and the AOPA Air Safety Foundation (ASF) offer these online programs. I selected the AOPA-ASF online program, designed and developed in cooperation with Jeppesen.
Impressed beyond words . . . I registered ($119) for this online program with a bit of skepticism. Frankly, I was expecting a rehash of the FAA Practical Test Standards (PTS), a bunch of AOPA-promoting rhetoric, and a repeat of the FAA's classic "Fundamentals of Instruction" (FOI). I was also expecting to undergo a series mental gyrations navigating through a convoluted and somewhat obtuse webpage design similar to the FAA's new WINGs program (which I still haven't comprehended). What I found, however, was a remarkably simple, easy-to-use interactive website that draws users in like a warm knife through butter. More importantly, however, is its content. In a word . . . it is RELEVANT! The entire basis of the AOPA-ASF/Jeppesen online FIRC is aeronautical decision making (ADM) and risk management assessment which, in turn, is all wrapped up in the FITS (FAA Industry Training Standard) scenario-based model of instruction. Hmmmm . . . have they been reading Over the Airwaves? Curiously, the program relegates the traditional PTS-based and age-old practice area flight training exercises lauded by traditional flight schools to the basement while elevating the really important stuff to the forefront of every participating CFIs' flight bag of instructional tricks. If every active CFI and every flight school in the nation applied the principles taught in this online program, our fatal accident rate would begin to tumble. In fairness, I haven't given the other vendors' FIRCs a try, but if they're anything like the AOPA-ASF/Jeppesen program, we have hope for the future of flight training and general aviation! Thought to ponder Here's something to think about. Let's develop a similar interactive online program for all pilots that would fulfill the ground portion of a biennial flight review per FAR 61.56. The resultant impact on our fatal accident rate could be significant. Death of the Airport Cafe!
For example, we lost a perfectly delightful airport cafe recently at the Oswego County Airport, in Fulton, NY. Similarly, the quaint cafe at Dart Field, located near Mayville, NY, will be closing its doors forever on July 7 of this year. "It's all a matter of economics," is the common answer I receive when asking why this is happening. "If pilots and other guests stop coming in, we have no way of paying the bills!" Let's support our airport cafes! There is an easy fix to this growing problem. We simply need to plan more trips to airports with on-site (or nearby) cafes. CFIs . . . . do your ground instruction at an airport cafe (and purchase a couple of meals, of course!) Weekend flyers . . . make your destination any airport with a cafe! Let's spread the word. Then, maybe, we can prevent the loss of another valuable GA resource! The Grand Experiment Continues!
BMFT was born out of a long-standing personal belief that the way to improve our deplorable GA fatal accident rate is to change the way flight students are trained. In the process, we could stop the revolving door of the over 50,000 new students who drop out before earning their private pilot certificates. Here's what we're doing . . . Our Instructors: Unlike many of the big flight training mills, BMFT does not employ last year's graduating students as this year's flight instructors. Each CFI is selected on the basis of real-world experience in the national airspace system. It is here where experience and interpersonal teaching skills count as much as stick and rudder skills . . . perhaps more!
You will not see weather-beaten aerial relics with ancient radios, unreliable electrical systems, torn and tattered seat coverings, chipped paint, bald tires, and cracked fairings on our flight line. Instead, each of our three Cessna 172SP, G1000 glass cockpit training aircraft are all less than 3 years old. The smell of new leather still permeates the cabins of these state-of-the-art aircraft. As for safety, each aircraft is equipped with traffic and terrain avoidance technology, NEXRAD weather (and XM music), and autopilots. Expensive?? No way. Keeping these airplanes in the air enables BMFT to keep the wet rental rate at or below $134/hour, without any deceptive "fuel surcharges." Couple this rate with the fact that our students learn faster flying the glass than they do with conventional round gauges, the total cost of obtaining the rating is often less than in traditional airplanes.
As a Cessna Pilot Center (CPC), BMFT uses the online Cessna/King School DVD-driven curriculum for the private, instrument, and commercial pilot courses. This interactive technology enables the student and instructor to work together both at the airport and remotely online. This dramatically enhances the overall training effectiveness. Equally important, BMFT incorporates this curriculum in its unique cross-country training missions that bring new students immediately into the national airspace system. Following the FITS (FAA-Industry Training Standards) model, very little time is ever spent in the traditional practice area. Instead, essential training elements are covered in multiple airport stops based upon real-world flight scenarios. Lastly, BMFT training goes well beyond the Practical Test Standards (PTS) to include those often under-taught elements that often contribute to our GA accident rates, e.g., stall/spins, continued VFR flight into IMC, defensive icing strategies, high traffic density operations, extreme attitude recoveries, and weather flying.
We're not there yet but BMFT is currently working with the FAA to earn its Part 141 certification. By pursuing this certification, we're endeavoring to work on the same level playing field as every other FAA approved flight school in the United States. Our aim is to dispel the belief that Part 141 flight schools do not have the regulatory flexibility to alter their training curriculum and styles. In summary, yes it is a grand experiment. We at BMFT believe that thrill of flight can be preserved as the student pilot develops the real-world skills that will keep him safe in all flight operations. And yes, we believe we can help to reduce the 60 percent new student dropout rate in the process! Click HERE to learn more about Bob Miller Flight Training, Inc.
Notes from the Past With nearly five years of OTA articles in the can, there are many that either touched a cord or generated more than usual reader feedback. Thus, we're going to begin reprising selected past OTA articles that deserve review by all proficient pilots. The first in this new series of reprised OTA articles comes from the June 11, 2006 issue. Here it is . . .
Zero
Tolerance How many of us truly understand
the risks of flight. We climb in and strap
ourselves down behind an engine capable of hurtling
us through the air at speeds faster than a Randy
Johnson fast ball. At rotation, any misdeed by man or machine could mean the
end of life for us and our passengers. Sound like a dramatic overstatement? If if does, beware. You could be the next victim! Earlier this year, EAA Chapter 46 (Buffalo, NY) president, Jim Cavanaugh (photo below, left) taxied his stately Cessna 150 to runway 26 at the Lancaster, NY (BQR) airport. Applying takeoff power, he began the roll. Jim glanced down at the oil pressure gauge.
A split second glance at the oil pressure gauge at this critical phase of flight saved the day for Jim. The rest of the story . . . Yesterday, Jim came to me for a flight review. Our combined weight meant that we would have to use one of our rental C-172s. I waited in the office while Jim did the pre-flight. I waited, and I waited, and I waited as he methodically checked off each of 48 pre-flight items on a home-made checklist he had brought with him.
He smiled back at me. We both instantly recalled his near disaster experience with the failed oil pump earlier this year. I said, "Take your time!" Jim Cavanaugh takes nothing for granted. He is a meticulous pilot who knows his aircraft and he knows his airmanship strengths and weaknesses. He has zero tolerance for error or oversight. Finally boarding the aircraft, Jim said to me. "Bob, it's 84 degrees this morning. Density altitude is 2,800 feet. You know what that means!" Jim had worked out every detail of our planned flight including the length of the takeoff roll on this hot and humid day. He left nothing to chance. I was impressed! How many of us exercise zero tolerance? Think about the many times we have launched without glancing at the oil pressure gauge, checked the oil filler cap, or sumped the tanks for water, or tugged on the alternator belt, or checked the prop for hairline cracks, or inspected the hydraulic fluid reservoir, or tugged on the exhaust stack, or removed the tow bar from the nose gear . . . the list goes on.
Most of us remember the really important things like making one last restroom stop before departing, but we haven't run a weight and balance or computed the required ground roll on a high density altitude day. We pilots are good at making big decisions, but we are not very good at the details! We can make the big go/no go decisions; we can select our alternates; we can even find the smoothest altitudes. But many of us are not very good at the details. We miss a little thing here, another thing there. Pretty soon, we've got a chain of oversights large enough to threaten the entire outcome of the flight. This is not so with my friend Jim Cavanaugh. He leaves nothing to chance. We would all do well to follow his example!
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Click HERE to view a short video, set to music, that reminisces those grand airlines of the past (and almost past) . . . who, through questionable management practices, either went out of business or were (or are being) swallowed up in merger! What does the future for airlines hold? Thanks to OTA reader, Paul Pedersen of Buffalo, NY, for sharing this video with us.Aero-News.Net Features OTA in Podcasts
"Airspeed and Landing" is the latest in a series of podcasts I have been doing with Aero-News.Net's Paul Plack. You can hear, or download for later listening, these 15 minute interviews and any of the previously conducted podcasts by clicking on the titles below: Podcast Titles[Click on desired titles - several minutes may be required to download.] Titles in RED are new since the last OTA. By the way, Aero-News.Net is a FREE daily online publication that is packed with aviation related news. It is the first thing I read every morning. You can log on to Aero-News.Net and subscribe for your free subscription by clicking HERE. OTA Wants to Know! Share your views about OTA, what you read about, or topics you would like us to include in future issues.
The Sad Saga of Busted Minimums Continues! It is difficult to develop compassion for a pilot, especially a flight instructor, who manages to kill three passengers along with himself while attempting to land below the published minimums for the instrument approach.
The reported weather at the time of this fatal accident was wind 210 degrees at 4 knots; visibility 1-1/4 miles; sky overcast at 300 feet agl; temperature 17 degrees Celsius; dew point 16 degrees Celsius.The CFI had been cleared for the VOR-A approach into CIU and was instructed by ATC to report when established inbound on the 218 degree radial final approach course. His plan was then to circle to land on Runway 27. The published minimums for this approach is 460 feet agl. According to the NTSB report, the airplane descended below the approach's authorized minimum descent altitude (MDA) about 2.6 miles northeast of the airport. It then leveled off at 285 feet agl as it flew over the intersection of runway 9/27 and runway 16/34. The airplane then made a left turn to the east, and paralleled runway 27 about 600 feet south of the runway at 185 feet agl. Numerous witnesses reported seeing the airplane traveling eastbound approximately 150 and 200 feet agl, and then perform a left turn back toward airport before impacting nose first into the terrain. Several of those witnesses reported that the airplane reached a bank angle of approximately 90 degrees during the turn. Get the picture???? The situation was obviously pretty grim for this flight instructor. The weather was changing rapidly as low level broken clouds were drifting over the airport. We do not know what pressures were facing this pilot on that fateful day in August, but it is apparent from the NTSB report that he was committed to landing. Perhaps they were low on fuel or maybe a passenger had an urgent need to go to the bathroom (with four people in an Aztec, there's no privacy even for a discrete use of a portable John or Jane). The post-accident investigation revealed no mechanical anomalies with the aircraft. Whatever the reason, this guy was apparently willing to risk the lives of all onboard by executing a VOR circling approach well below published minimums. What do the FARs have to say about this?
FAR 91.175(e) goes on to say that a pilot must immediately execute an appropriate missed approach procedure when an identifiable part of the airport is not distinctly visible to the pilot during a circling maneuver at or above MDA, unless the inability to see an identifiable part of the airport results only from a normal bank of the aircraft during the circling approach. Circling approaches are, arguably, the most challenging of all instrument procedures. They require maneuvering at altitudes often less than one-half the height of the traffic pattern . . . in poor weather! When necessary, executing the published missed approach procedure requires continued low level turning to the specified heading and altitude. So why would anybody risk busting minimums on such an approach? Can the desire to land be that intense to yank and bank just 100 or 200 feet above the runway . . . in poor weather conditions? FAR 91.175 should be permanently engraved into the cerebral cortex of every instrument pilot before being sent off for his checkride or allowed to complete an instrument proficiency check (IPC). When asked, he should be able to recite it verbatim. Instrument pilot readers: Can you recite FAR 91.175 verbatim?? Helpful Sponsors Please support OTA's helpful sponsors by clicking on the images below where you will find ordering information. Each is a first-class publication that can help the proficient pilot become even better!
Note: If you have an aviation-related product or service you would like to promote and help underwrite the continued publication of Over the Airwaves, please send an email to rjma@rjma.com.Keep those patterns tight! Earlier this month my student and I found ourselves on the downwind leg at a non-towered airport behind a Piper Warrior who was executing a classic Boeing 747-400 traffic pattern. We helplessly watched him turn base leg approximately two miles from the runway threshold.
Turning onto final, we patiently waited for him to pass abeam our left wing before turning on base ourselves . . . still over a mile from the runway. As we turned on final, a red Pitts Special trailing behind us suddenly cut in front of us on final. We executed a few S-turns to regain the necessary spacing and continued in to land. Clearly, the Pitts Special pilot had grown understandably impatient with the traffic pattern flow and took matters into his own hands - nearly causing a mid-air collision in the process. All because of the excessively large traffic pattern! Turning on base leg more than 1/2 mile from the runway threshold can create monumental traffic pattern hazards. As exhibited by the Pitts Special pilot's actions above, the normal pattern flow can easily be interrupted with folks behind us turning on final immediately ahead of us. Worse, spotting other aircraft in the pattern can be severely compromised by excessively large traffic patterns. The "see and avoid" practice we all follow suddenly becomes more challenging. Let's put a stop to B-747-400 traffic patterns. Keep it in close. It's safer and . . . it's even more fuel-efficient!
"Over the five year
period from 2002 to 2006, the number of GA accidents
declined by 10.8 percent, while annual estimated GA
flight hours decreased by 1.5 million (5.9 percent).
The GA accident rate per 100,000 flight hours
continues its decade-long decline, from 7.19
accidents per 100,000 hours in 1997 to 6.32 per
100,000 hours in 2006. The fatal accident rate
Hmmmm . . . AOPA's
Air Safety Foundation (ASF) is at it again in boasting continued
improvements in the GA safety record. Reading this
statement leads us to believe that flying little airplanes
is getting safer and safer every year. Bravo to us!
Now take a look at the
actual general aviation fatal accident rate taken directly
from
NTSB website.
Could it be that somebody is cooking the numbers? No,
of course not. The numbers are real. Only the
time period covered is different. The ASF data covers
the last 5 year period and our data covers a 9 year period.
We call this "cherry picking" the data to support a
given argument. Corporate sales departments frequently
use this technique to sell their products. We have all
heard advertising claims like "Nine out of ten dentists
surveyed choose Crest for their patients."
The question is, which dentists were surveyed?
We do, of course,
expect AOPA to be out there aggressively "selling"
general aviation. Their promotional messages to
pilots, the public, and to our law makers have helped to
preserve our precious flying freedoms.
The ASF, on the other
hand, is not in the business of
"selling" general aviation. Instead, it is a
"nonprofit, tax exempt organization promoting safety and
pilot proficiency in general aviation through quality
training, education, research, analysis, and the
dissemination of information." [quoted
from the ASF website].
In other words, the ASF
mission is to promote safety
and pilot proficiency. It is not a promotion
and sales organization! We expect the information ASF
disseminates to be based upon fact rather than misleading (I
did not say incorrect) reporting of the data.
So what's
the big deal?
The big deal is this. If we
pilots are falsely led to believe that general aviation is
getting safer every year, we will be less inclined to change
our piloting behaviors. When such messages come from
the very people in place to promote safety and pilot
proficiency (ASF), the negative effect of such false
messages is even more damaging.
The ASF does a
wonderful job preparing arguably the best pilot training
materials in the industry. They, along with the EAA,
King Schools, the FAA, and the many other GA organizations,
spend millions of dollars disseminating safety programs and
materials.
The problem is, many of
us pilots are not taking advantage of these resources.
The vast majority of all certificated pilots are NOT showing
up at safety seminars or downloading interactive training
programs. The reason we're not could be that we are
being led to believe (falsely) that our accident rate is
declining and that we're good and getting better.
Hence, why bother?
So what's the solution?
The seriousness of this problem is far greater than many
might believe, but it can be fixed. Here's what
we can do. Let's leave the business of promoting
general aviation to the AOPA, not the ASF.
Instead, let's tell Bruce and his staff to objectively
report the facts, even if they run contrary to AOPA's party
line. Let's put the ASF into the "no spin zone,"
to borrow a phrase from TV talking head, Bill O'Reilly.
We do not need
the ASF offering dozens of excuses why, flight hour for
flight hour, GA is slightly more than 100 times riskier than
airline flight.
Instead, we
need them to use this little known fact to encourage GA
pilots to engage in more frequent recurrent training, to
avail themselves to the wealth of online and printed pilot
training materials, to encourage changes in the way we train
pilots, and to tighten, where necessary, rules and
regulations pertaining to pilot certification.
This business of flight safety rises far above AOPA
membership goals and lobbying Congress. Tax-exempted
donations flowing into the ASF require honest and objective
reporting of the facts rather than the dissemination of
conveniently selected data to support the AOPA's promotional
agenda.
This can be done without hurting general aviation.
Instead, the resultant reduction in our fatal accident rate
from a frank and honest reporting of the attendant risks,
and the things we could do about them, could be the greatest
stimulus to general aviation since $1.49/gallon avgas and
$200/year insurance premiums!
Bob
Miller, ATP, CFII AOPA Air Safety Foundation Rebuttal . . .
I forwarded an advance copy of the above article
to AOPA and the Air Safety Foundation for comment.
Below is the reply received from ASF chief, Bruce
Landsberg:
Bob -
The AOPA Air Safety Foundation has
CONSISTENTLY used rolling five-year
averages in its Nall Reports as they
provide a good balance point to
demonstrate trends. Over the years,
these trends have not always been
positive and when that is so, we
have noted it.
Nevertheless, there’s one thing in
which we all agree: GA pilots can
and should do better job in
preventing fatal accidents. That’s
precisely why ASF does more
in-person and online safety seminars
than anyone else combined, resulting
in more than 20,000 course
completions every month! And we
continue to offer new and exciting
ways to get the message out. Your
readers can see for themselves at
www.asf.org.
Thanks for the opportunity to
respond.
Safe Flights......Bruce
Goings On About Town . . .
Several CFIs including Gold Seal's Russell Still and Over the Airwaves' Bob Miller will be on hand to personally address your questions via live streaming Internet radio. Click here to RSVP and make sure to give us your questions. Our team of instructors will be live to tackle the issues that you want to learn about. It's going to be a lot of fun.
Sunday, July 13 at the Dunkirk, NY Airport (KDKK)
This year's annual event is held in honor of local aviation
pioneer and Dunkirk Aviation founder, John Nalbone, Sr. Mr. Nalbone learned to fly in 1938 at
Jamestown NY on a scholarship through the Civilian Pilot
Training Act and subsequently earned his Commercial and Flight
Instructor certificates.
Saturday, July 19th - 7pm to 10pm Well-known Buffalo aviator and restaurateur, Mark Croce, is inviting all pilots and friends of the WNY aviation community, air traffic controllers, and OTA readers (adults only) to a Summer Bash to be held at the Buck'n Buffalo Saloon on Saturday, July 19 from 7pm to 10pm.There will plenty to eat and drink, live music . . . and it's FREE. This third annual summer event is unique experience. Be there!!!
July 28 - August 3 - AirVenture 2008, Oshkosh!
Join Bob Miller and his Buffalo EAA Chapter 46 family and friends for a week of unparalleled aviation fun and excitement at AirVenture 2008 in Oshkosh. You'll find us hanging out under a large green and white party tent somewhere near Lindbergh Avenue and 46th Street in Camp Scholler. Click HERE here for the most up-to-the-minute news about AirVenture 2008! August 1, 2 & 3 SKY FEST - Chautauqua County Airport, Jamestown, NY Hot Air Balloons - Vintage and Military Aircraft
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wine. 
Curiously,
running out of fuel in our airplane is like a nasty sunburn.
We remain aloft (or in the sun) too long without taking
precautions, we're going to get burned!
As
in all such accident investigations, we will likely never
know what the PIC was thinking as this flight unfolded.
Fortunately, he survived and may be able to tell us.
Many of these
fuel-related accidents, of course, did not result from
running out of fuel. Accident investigators often find
plenty of fuel still remaining on board. The hapless
pilot simply forgot to switch tanks!
RV
flying experience!
Perhaps
it is the sign of times. Airport cafes, leastwise in
my areas of frequent travel, seem to be closing down faster
than Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign budget.
Figuratively
thumbing its nose at the traditional flight training
community, Bob Miller Flight Training, Inc. (BMFT)
has completed its 6th month of operations. From every
measurable indicator, it's working precisely as planned!
Our
Aircraft: 
Our
Curriculum:
FAR
Part 141 FAA Approved Flight School:
Startled
by what he saw, Jim immediately pulled the throttle
to idle, mixture to cutoff, and stepped on the
brakes. Somewhere between his run-up and
takeoff, his oil pump toasted leaving his engine
starving for oil.
"Jim,
you are renting the airplane, not purchasing it,"
I yelled across the ramp!
How
many times have we penetrated the clouds without
first checking vacuum pressure or the outside
temperature gauge? How many times have we
found ourselves aloft without having all available
information regarding our route of flight, our
destination, and any possible alternates? Ever
forget an approach plate?
Those
grand airlines of the past!!
Such
was the case recently when a 23 year-old CFI, with a student
pilot and two backseat passengers aboard, were attempting to
land their Piper Aztec at the Chippewa County International
Airport (CIU) located in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
