The Pre-Flight Briefing - Pilot Shop Blog

Every pilot has a library. Some are bigger than others, but they all include at the very minimum the basic textbooks that got you through your certification training. If you have a little more space to play with, you may find yourself wondering what books you should add to your collection.

As a responsible human being and pilot, before you commit to a flight, you naturally will want to check the weather. An AIRMET is one of the sources that pilots use to gather the meteorological information needed for flight planning and decision making.

Our physical human senses are well-adapted to provide us with information about what is happening in the world around us. Usually this information is accurate, but don’t get complacent. Our senses are not fool proof and they can be tricked, especially during flight.

For new pilots making their first nighttime approach to landing, when the runway comes into sight, it can easily appear as a complex and confusing sea of lights and colors. While we may not be able to take away all the butterflies that come with tackling that first night landing, it pays to dedicate some time prior to the flight for reviewing all the airport runway lights you can expect to see. Knowing their configuration, spacing, color, and purpose has the power to bring clarity to the confusion and to train our eyes to pick out and understand what we are seeing as we make that approach to landing.

How perfect and infallible is your memory? Would you bet your life on it? Probably not, but if you are taking off for a flight without having gone through a preflight checklist, you are indeed betting your life on your memory.

Pivotal altitude is the specific altitude at which, when an airplane turns at a given groundspeed, from the pilot’s point of view, the plane’s wingtip seems to pivot around a single fixed reference point on the ground.

Are you a student pilot getting ready to log your first cross country flight? Perhaps you have been flying for a while and want to check in to see what tips other pilots have when it comes to cross country flying. Either way, you are in the right place.

A pilot kneeboard is one of the cockpit essentials that every pilot from a first-time student to a seasoned ATP needs for each flight. At its most basic, a kneeboard is an organizational system that straps onto your thigh and serves as a readily accessible and highly visible place to organize charts, documents, paperwork and digital devices. Styles vary and your choice of kneeboard will depend on what tools you will be using most in your cockpit.

The “squawk sheet, “gripe sheet,” or “aircraft discrepancy log” as it is more officially titled is intended as a communication tool to pass vital aircraft performance concern information between pilots and maintenance engineers.

You are planning your flight and need to check surface weather conditions at your destination airport. But which system do you use? AWOS? ASOS? What is the difference between the two and how do you know which system an airport is using?

For decades, the stereotype has been that men fly the aircraft and women serve the beverages. Times and beliefs are steadily changing, but the gender gap between men and women in the cockpit is still very wide. If you are looking for some inspirational female pilot role models and mentors for yourself or a young aspiring female aviator, go follow the Instagram accounts of these fantastic women.

What is one of the likely culprits for decreased fuel efficiency? Drag, we are looking at you. Drag is a backwards horizontal force generated by resistance as the plane moves through the air. It is one of the four aerodynamic forces of flight and is opposed by thrust.

Imagine you arrive at the airport planning a quick hop to the rustic mountainside cabin you reserved for a weekend getaway. The only problem? The runway is socked in with fog as thick as pea soup, and it doesn’t look like it will be dissipating any time soon. Now what?

So, you’ve officially earned your pilot’s certificate. Congratulations – now what are you going to do with it? If you’re like many newly minted pilots, you may be wondering what pilot careers you can choose from. Of course, you’re looking for a job that you enjoy, but there’s more to it than that.

Talk of the air conditioning systems on aircraft can be enough to make a germaphobe squirm. With all the urban legends of getting sick after flying, and the thought of breathing stale air onboard commercial passenger jets, planes’ AC systems have developed a bad reputation in some circles. It can be hard to sort out the fact from the fiction, so today we will set the record straight and share all the details you need to know about aircraft air conditioning systems including how it works and how clean it really is.