Taxi into Position

• Logging into http://faasafety.gov
• Navigating to your My Wings page
• Finding the seminar or event you attended
• Finding a validator who can confirm your attendance at that event
• Submitting the request to the validator

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Was That For Us?

To help address the problem of runway incursions the FAA co-produced a DVD in conjunction with the Airline Pilots Association and United Airlines. This video is reproduced below and focuses on runway safety best practices for commercial operations at towered and non-towered airports.
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The latest edition of the FAA Aviation Safety newsletter just came out and it has some nice articles in it. This is well worth subscribing to if you don’t already have a subscription.

http://www.faa.gov/news/aviation_news/2008/media/MarApr2008.pdf

You can find more information on FAA Aviation News, links to their past editions and info on how to subscribe to their print edition here:

http://www.faa.gov/news/aviation_news/

Courtesy of AOPA’s ePilot Training Tips email newsletter that I receive each month (this is an AOPA member benefit but hopefully many of you are already members of AOPA, if not please have a look and consider joining) I found out that Rod Machado has just started an email newsletter. Rod is a very well know part of the aviation community and brings his unique brand of humour to his columns in Flight Training Magazine, AOPA Pilot and his live seminars and his training books.

You can always tell when Rod is speaking at Airventure as the crowd spills out of the seminar hall and it’s standing room only inside! AOPA has an online video showcasing some of Rod’s humorous approach to teaching so you can have a look if you are not familiar with Rod’s style.

Needless to say he has a lot of great information to impart on the subjects of flight training, being a student pilot, flight instruction and a lot more. You can find the March 2008 edition of his newsletter here: http://www.rodmachado.com/Newsletters/March-08.html and this includes a place where you can sign-up to receive subsequent newsletter via email.

The current newsletter gives some links to Rod’s existing material online and information about his new book “Rod Machado’s Instrument Flying Handbook” (you can check out some example chapters and it does look very nice). He writes that subsequent editions of the newsletter will contain free podcasts, CFI slides for instrument ground school and more. Given the quality of Rod’s work this should turn into a very valuable resource so I would encourage you to have a look and sign up.

Just a quick note to thank Bob Comperini (fly-ul.com) and Aliseo Flying Boats (flying-boat.com) for their links in to PrepareToTest.com. PrepareToTest is one of the few places that provide online practice for the Sport Pilot exam and its been great to see how the number of Sport Pilot subscriptions has been going up and up in the last year, its growing far faster than any other section of the site which is spectacular news! I’m going to be working on putting some more information and resources up on the site for the many sport pilot applicants that are using us to prepare for the various sport pilot licenses.

Bob Comperini - http://fly-ul.com

Bob’s site has a lot (and I mean a LOT!) of great links to a whole bunch of online information relating to ultralights, sport pilot, homebuilding, regulatory and many other topics. Its well worth having a quick visit to see what he has on there.

Aliseo Flying Boats - http://flying-boat.com

Aliseo Flying Boats require the Sport Pilot Weight Shift license and they have a very handy Training page that gives prospective pilots some more information on the sport pilot test and how you can get specific training in the Aliseo II. Its deep mid-winter here in the Midwest, the ski plane fly-ins are in full swing, its great to think about flying around the lakes in summer in one of these aircraft!

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I just came across FlightAware, a live flight tracking site that you can use to follow the usual commercial airline flights but also any flight under IFR. This could be a useful tool for individuals watching their loved ones en route or instructors/FBOs wishing to follow their IFR flights out in the field. In addition to the flight tracking features they have a number of other resources on the site which are of note:

• They have various weather charts but it is not a comprehensive selection so its useful to see what’s going on in the world but not sufficient for getting your own briefing.
• The e>metar feature is interesting - send email from your mobile device to wx@flightaware.com with the airport codes in the subject line and get back a reply containing the most recent METAR and TAF for these airports.
• IFR Route analyzer - Enter a departure and destination airport and see flight plans that have been filed for that route in the past 24 hours.
• Of interest to web and application developers they also provide the FlightXML API. This is a webservice that you can use to query live and historical flight tracking info for use in your own software.

Technorati Tags: flying, IFR, flight tracking

If you are ever passing through Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport with some time to spare, they have an excellent second hand bookstore with a great section on aviation. On a recent trip I stopped by and was casually browsing when Barbara Cushman Rowell’s “Flying South” came to my attention. I first noticed her surname which brought to mind the world famous mountaineer, climber and photographer Galen Rowell. A quick look at the cover and at the spectacular photos inside confirmed the connection. Barbara Cushman Rowell was Galen Rowell’s wife and this book is as much a story about her escape from his shadow as it is about a flight she took from California down and around South America and back.

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As part of my regular review of the FAA’s Airman Knowledge Test Question page for PrepareToTest.com I noticed something new today. The FAA has released the computer testing supplements that contain all the figures for the various pilot and AMT knowledge tests. These contain all the supplemental material that are provided to you when you take an FAA knowledge test at an approved testing center.
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With an acknowledged weakness for books, particularly books related to flying and especially ones with great photography, it wasn’t a struggle deciding to purchase Jim Wark’s ‘America Flying High’ when I came across a second hand copy in my local bookstore.

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Propellers - most of us use them in one form or another and we study the basic theory as part of the various FAA written exams. The various prop manufacturers have some great additional resources to learn more about these critical components of our aircraft and how to approach the related safety issues.

• McCauley has a very nice Propeller System Technology Guide which covers theory, performance and maintenance.
• Hartzell has a highly instructive Propeller Safety section describing propeller safety and issues that might crop up in various phases of flight. This would be a great handout/reference for flight schools and FBOs.