Every airplane checklist has a story. Sometimes the story tells the tale of a responsible pilot who double checks all of the boxes on their list, while other times the pilot has forgotten to check even the smallest detail before take off resulting in an unintentional accident. Each time

By Mike Bliss  When we first learned to drive, we were taught the importance of defensive driving. We learned how to develop the habit of anticipating situations before they happened and to be prepared to take action as we identified hazards in our path.  These same skills are equally

By Chris Webb Here are a few of the questions I get in and out of airline academy. What does it mean to ‘preflight an aircraft?’ When should it be done and who should do it? It is very easy to just follow the checklist. After all, that is

By Mike Bliss Although much attention has been given in the last few years to the topic of runway incursions by those in and out of commercial pilot programs, it continues to be a problem, one that can potentially have very serious consequences. The key to avoiding such incursions

By: Stephen Daun Much of our country experienced hotter than normal temperatures this summer. Because of this, many pilots had to adjust the way that they flew to deal with the higher temperatures and higher density altitudes. Now it’s is time to prepare for our annual mindset shift from summer

By: Richard Hyslop – Retired AA Captain   Is your runway long enough? This is the million dollar question, which has a complicated answer. Remember that Airlines are in the business of moving people from one place to another. Our customers choose their city of residence or destination by

A Discussion on Temperature By Steven Daun, National Chief Pilot Winter is here and with it comes significant variation in the weather. It is important to note that when we discuss “winter weather” we are not just speaking about it being cold outside. Winter weather encompasses many different topics. For

By: Steven Daun, National Chief Pilot There is a famous saying that “if you don’t make mistakes you don’t learn.” Whoever wrote that must have been a flight instructor. As flight instructors, we want our students to make mistakes while they are flying with us, so they don’t make them