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Thursday, December 11, 2008 11:27 PM

Taking the Instrument Rating Checkride

I've had a few folks ask me for advice on taking the instrument rating checkride. There are plenty of resources on what to study, which designated pilot examiner (DPE) to use, and other "how to prep" suggestions. They are generally pretty good considering they have to be pretty general considering those providing the advice rarely have enough insight to give truly valuable advice to the asker. However, the below experience worked well enough for me...
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Sunday, February 17, 2008 11:09 PM

Lightspeed Zulu

My first impressions of the Lightspeed Zulu headset.
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Friday, September 15, 2006 2:52 AM

"Mama Bird" May Be Grounded

Evelyn Bryan Johnson , recognized by Guiness as the female pilot with the most logged flight time (over seven years in the air), was involved in a car crash on the way to the airport the morning of September 10, 2006. The gist of the full story is she
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Monday, August 07, 2006 12:57 AM

Every Flight Should Teach a Lesson. Right?

Well, here are a few lessons learned (and re-learned) today: Always brief the departure procedure given by clearance delivery. When the lineman chocks the front wheel, remove both chocks - especially if you have wheel pants. Don't trust the lineman's
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Wednesday, July 19, 2006 12:02 PM

Power Outage at Another California ATC Facility

Another power outage in a California ATC facility - this time LA Center. What gives? Does the FAA have nobody planning for this sort of thing? "We lost everything. We lost all power to phone lines, computers, everything," said Allen Kenitzer, a regional
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Thursday, April 20, 2006 3:33 AM

Power Outage Causes Controllers' Angst?

I heard a blurb about this on the radio while driving home from work today and had to shake my head. Here is the story as reported by the San Jose Mercury News. In a nutshell, there was a problem with an underground cable feeding power to a TRACON near
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Friday, April 14, 2006 11:11 AM

DC ADIZ Public Meeting Transcripts Back Online

AOPA reports the transcripts of the Metropolitan Washington Special Flight Rules Area public meetings are now back online. This was yet another exercise in bureaucratic stupidity. Even though the meetings were public, attended by hundreds of citizens,
Posted by jtabor | 2 Comments
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Thursday, January 26, 2006 9:25 PM

What's the Preferred Video Format?

As you undoubtedly know, I share a number of flying videos on this site in both Windows Media and Real Video formats. Frankly, I'm tiring of spending the time to render both high- and low-bandwidth versions of each video in two formats (making four files
Posted by jtabor | 6 Comments
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Wednesday, January 11, 2006 5:23 AM

Owning vs Renting

I was asked recently about my thoughts on owning versus renting and figured I'd share those thoughts here. If I had the funds to buy a plane outright, I would, but a small flight club was the best option for my scenario. In this case, we're actually part
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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 1:36 AM

ADIZ NPRM Response

I am a private pilot with an instrument rating for single-engine airplanes. To date, I have about 380 hours of total flight time and fly approximately 45 hours per year - which is about double that of the typical private pilot. I am a part-owner in a
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Wednesday, August 03, 2005 8:40 PM

TabletPC in the Cockpit

I posted a while back that I have given up my long-time (OK, "relatively" long-time) subscription to Jeppesen in lieu of Sporty's IFR ChartViewer. Just to recap, I can get a year-long subscription to the ChartViewer and get every approach, departure,
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Friday, June 17, 2005 3:50 AM

14 Year Old Boy Takes Joy-Flight

It's bad enough we pilots face an ignorant public who think of us as spoiled rich boys playing with our expensive toys. It's worse that we have pilots busting the DC ADIZ. You might say we suffer an image problem. It doesn't help to leave your plane unlocked
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Tuesday, June 14, 2005 3:40 AM

Safer Skies? This Way.

USA Today continued their apparent crusade against General Aviation with their editorial of June 6, 2005. It's ironic that they chose this date, the anniversary of the Normandy invasion to advance the cause of freedom, to call for more restrictions on
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Wednesday, May 25, 2005 1:33 PM

Media Continues Incorrect Reporting

The Associated Press continues to get its aviation "facts" wrong. In this story carried by the Air Force Times, they say this: Private planes are not allowed to fly in the Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ — an area of about 2,000 square miles
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Tuesday, May 24, 2005 5:30 AM

ADIZ Pilot Shaeffer Loses Certificate

You may recall the headlines back on May 11, 2005. CBS News characterized it as a "terrifying" ordeal for Capitol Hill staffers as the Capitol, Supreme Court and White House were evacuated. The cause? A small 2-seat airplane penetrated the DC ADIZ (air
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