As a pilot, do you really need to wear sunglasses? Many people think that you don’t and that pilots merely wear them to look cool. Indeed, as a new pilot many years ago, that was how I felt. I didn’t wear spectacles, I didn’t wear sunglasses for driving, and I saw no good reason …
I first heard about kneeboards for pilots when I was a very new flying student, way back in the 1990s. At the end of a lesson in which I was trying to write down important flying information on a notepad balanced on my lap, my instructor told me that I needed to buy a kneeboard. …
The Heading Indicator or HI is also known as the Direction Indicator or DI, or sometimes the Directional Gyro. This instrument is used in almost all airplanes to show heading information. The Heading Indicator is situated on the instrument panel and is directly in front of the pilot in most planes. This is because, along …
New flying students hoping to train for a Private Pilot’s License will discover references to “Part 61 and Part 141” as soon as they start doing any research on flying schools. So what do these terms actually mean? And why is Part 61 vs 141 certification important, and also treated as though it is such …
Introduction Crosswind landings are considered to be one of the most difficult maneuvers in light aircraft flying. Virtually all student pilots struggle when learning them, and most people still find them difficult for a long while after getting a Private Pilot’s License. Even fairly experienced private pilots have a hard time with them, often for …
The Cessna 150 vs 172 are similar in many ways. They are both all single-engined metal high-wing light aircraft, which were made in large numbers by Cessna, and aimed at the private flying and training market. Many pilots are likely to have learned to fly on one or other of them, and even more will …
Introduction As is clear from the name, the Cessna Citation CJ3 is one of Cessna‘s Citation Jet family, of which there are several different models. The Citation CJ3 was initially certified in 2004 and was a development of the earlier CJ1 and CJ2. The new CJ3 offered increased performance and several other changes. Aircraft deliveries …
Lancair first started manufacturing aircraft in 1984, building kit planes that had to be made up by the buyer. The company won several prizes for its innovative aircraft, and founder Lance Neibauer was given an award by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). All of Lancair’s kit planes were classified as Experimental Aircraft by the FAA, …
The Cessna Citation M2 is a light business jet, which has been manufactured by Cessna since 2011 and is still in production. It was based on an earlier Citation, the Model 525 CitationJet or CJ1, which was first launched in 1989. This had been developed due to the increasing prices of the engines that were …
Introduction The Cessna 441, known as the Conquest II, is a turboprop aircraft. As such, it was specifically designed to bridge the gap between Cessna’s well-known piston engine aircraft and their increasingly successful jet aircraft. It was actually the first turboprop airplane that Cessna made and was developed in 1974, with the first aircraft being …
