The Pre-Flight Briefing - Pilot Shop Blog

What was unique about the Starship’s design? What caused the Starship to fail so spectacularly from a sales perspective, and what could Beechcraft have done differently? Where are the remaining Starships now and how many are still flying? What are the take-aways from its story?

Today we’ll explore the answers to these questions and more.

For cars, the answer lies in the speedometer, but for planes, the information comes from the airspeed indicator. In this article, we will look at the fundamentals behind this device and why it plays such a crucial role in flight planning. Ready? Let's get started!

If you are like the majority of general aviation pilots and a great portion of commercial airline pilots, you likely log more day flights than night ones. To keep yourself and your passengers safe, let’s review what the FAA defines as a night flight, go over the currency minimums necessary, discuss how night flying differs from day flying, and talk about common mistakes made during night flights so you can know to avoid them.

How’s your cross-country playlist looking? If that flying soundtrack has gotten a little old and boring, consider this song list your refresh inspiration. We’ve included our picks for the 25 best aviation/flying songs, and they’re not limited to just one genre or time frame either. Our list gives you a taste of everything from heavy metal and rock to modern and classic pop plus some easy listening, with the oldest song on the list dating back to 1910. No matter what kind of music you listen to, there’s a song here for you.

When we gaze up at the sky and see birds or planes gracefully gliding across it, we never take a moment to appreciate just how intricate science makes this possible.

A key factor in getting these machines airborne is the aerodynamic shape of their wings: airfoils. In this article, we will delve into the world of airfoil camber, exploring its effect on aerodynamics and how it works to produce lift and power flight.

Imagine you have designed an excellent aircraft. It’s reliable, economical and requires minimal maintenance. Customers love it. There’s just one problem, your plane is a two-place design, and your company doesn’t yet have the strong four-place offering that customers are looking for. What do you do? Simply stretch the design, add two seats, and make a couple of tweaks for weight and balance, right?

New private pilots are used to flying into smaller airfields and in uncontrolled airspace, but when your flight plans take you to a major city with a large, busy airport, you will need to know how to navigate the crowded skies and runways. That’s right, it’s time to brush up on your Class B airspace knowledge.

Unlike the other five classes of airspace, Class G airspace is uncontrolled. It simply exists anywhere that is not designated as Class A, B, C, D, or E. Class G airspace will be found bordering Class E airspace which is another type of airspace that often needs a bit of explanation.  While IFR traffic is controlled in Class E airspace, once you enter Class G, both VFR and IFR traffic are uncontrolled.

You dream of a life of adventure, of getting paid to travel the world accumulating stamps in your passport and photos for your Instagram page. So how are you going to make that dream a reality? It’s the question you secretly dread. After all, you aren’t an Instagram influencer, a well-known travel writer, or the recipient of a generous trust fund. Working on a cruise ship is out because just taking a water taxi ride is enough to make you nauseous.  You don’t have a pilot’s license and you have no experience as a flight attendant. What’s left?

When we visualize our landings, we usually picture ourselves aligned with the runway centerline as we fly the final approach. Most of the time, that is exactly what the reality looks like, but what happens when we are flying an instrument approach and that approach is not aligned with the runway we wish to land on or conditions do not permit us to land on the aligned runway? Now what can we do? The solution is to execute a circling approach.

Learning from the fatal mistakes of others is unfortunately a reality in the aviation world. The more we study and review what went wrong on other flights, the better prepared we will be to manage or avoid similar dangers on our own flights.

The cross-control stall has a deadly reputation, and for good reason. The AOPA’s Safety Institute researched various stall accidents and found that in nearly 80% of cross-control stall accidents, at least one person aboard the aircraft died. Those aren’t the kind of odds most of us would like to gamble on, so clearly some training and prevention is in order.

The airspeed indicator tells a pilot their horizontal velocity, and the altimeter advises pilots of their current altitude, but how does a pilot know how fast that altitude is changing? For this you need to consult your aircraft’s vertical speed indicator (VSI).

Airport signs and airport markings are the guides that help us to navigate the intricate network of aprons, taxiways, runways and other aircraft movement surfaces.

You can’t fly an aircraft that’s not airworthy, it’s the law. This rather black-and-white statement about safe aviation makes sense. But, in reality, the world is not black-and-white. Situations arise that may require you to move a plane that does not meet the legal definition for airworthy. 

Non-pilots sometimes see aircraft come in for a landing, briefly touch down to the runway, and then just as quickly accelerate and take back off. These non-aviators are often confused by the maneuver and wonder what the pilot was doing. Fellow pilots will recognize that the aircraft was executing a touch and go landing.